Books on Indian Trees & Plants

[J.M. Garg]

I have combined the feed back received from the members of Indiantreepix for the benefit of everybody & reproduced below (also attached as well as available for download from http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix/files):

1. Trees of Delhi - A field guide by Pradip Krishen (Rs.799)- Dorling Kindersley publication- A very good book for identifying trees all over India (though much more relevant to the members from Delhi) as it gives account of 252 species with 1100 good quality photographs. Kudos to the author- an excellent publication! It is definitely worth having it on your
bookshelf.

2. Shrikant Ingalhalikar's Flowers of Sahyadri, 2001, Corolla Publications, Pune, (Ph. 020- 24351388) printed by Pragati Offset, Hyderabad. The flowers are restricted to the Western Ghats, specifically to Maharashtra. It can also be carried in your daypack.

Concluding Part of Shrikant Ingalhalikar's  Further Flowers of Sahyadri, 2007- Field guide to additional 1200 flowers of North- Western Ghats of India, Price- Rs. 800. Though the field guide is titled as Flowers of Sahyadri, it is useful for most plants of all the regions. Besides it also covers trees found in urban habitats. May be it is the first ever such publication.  It has breath- taking photographs!  Every species described has beautiful photograph. The design, description, photos and the layout are par excellence!

2B. Forest Flora of the Bombay Presidency and Sind/ W.A. Talbot. Reprint. First published: Poona, Government of Bombay, 1909. 1984, 2 v., 508, 574 p., 541 figs., $63. Reprint of The Flora Of The Presidency Of Bombay 1903-1908 2 Vols. Set by T. Cooke-Publisher: Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, 1983 (Reprint), Dehradun.

3. Concise flowers of the Himalayas by Oleg Polunin & Adam Stainton (Rs.450)- Oxford
Publication- A very good book for identifying & knowing about the flowers of the Himalayas. It explains about 1002 species of Himalayan flowers with colours photographs & Drawings.

4. Tropical garden plants by Bose, Choudhary and Sharma. Certain names may have changed since but it has 1661 plates of trees, shrubs, climbers, house plants, cacti and succulents. Worth every bit of about Rs 2000/-. It’s one of the best books for the layman, and horticulturist.

5. Common Flowers of India by D.S.Pandey & N.P.Singh by Publications division (Rs. 250) - highlights 150 common plants. I have not gone through the book, though it appears quite good with good quality pictures.

6. The book of Indian Trees by K.C. Sahni- Oxford publication (Rs.275)- Explains 153 Indian species in quite technical way. A difficult read for the beginners, though good for advance readers. It explains species with the help of 70 drawings & 20 colours photographs of about 90 species. It is produced by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in Mumbai.

7. The BNHS has published *Trees of Mumbai*, 2006. Price Rs. 465/-. Sadly, it is not even half as good as Trees of Delhi.

8. Isaac Kehimkar's book, *Common Indian Wild Flowers*, BNHS, 2000. Price Rs. 375/-. Highly recommended and can be carried in the field.

 9. Beautiful trees & shrubs of Kolkata by R.K.Chakraverty & S.K.Jain- published by Botanical Survey of India, Indian Botanical Garden, Howrah- Rs.128 (198 pages)- Very good book for Kolkata members although it is quite useful for others also. Quality of photographs is not upto the mark. However details about Kolkata are very good.

 10. *Trees of India*, 1999 by Dr Subhadra Menon & Pallava Bagla. A large book published by Timeless Books, New Delhi. Contains photo descriptions of approx. 80 trees.

11. "The Secret life of Trees" by Colin Tudge, Penguin Books, 2006. It is very interesting and absorbing- more so since the author visited India too.

12.  Indian Trees- Dietrich Brandis-1978- antic reference book.

13. Maharashtra flora- 4 volumes- Dr. M.R. Almeida-Good reference book to get species account. It is not a field guide.

14.  North East Indian Orchids- Mohan Pradhan- very good book.

15.  Some beautiful Indian trees- E. Blatter and Walter Millard- for beginners.

16. Our tree neighbors- Chakravarti. S. Venkatesh- National Council of Educational research and training- OK book with some useful tips.

17. Some beautiful Indian climbers and shrubs- N.L. Bor and Raizada- Many exotics are included in this book.

18. Focus on sacred groves and ethnobotany- Prof.V.D.Vartak- this book deals with conservation of trees in older days.

19. Endemic plants of the Indian region- M.Ahmeddullah and M.P. Nayar- Botanical survey of India- for further reading it is useful.

20. The private life of plant- David Attenborough- Good to have in collection. Informative.

21. The secret life of plants- Peter Tomkins and Christopher Bird- Informative. Good to have.

22.  Freaks and marvels of plants life- M.C.Cook- antic book.

23. Taxanomy of vascular plants- George H.M. Lawrence- Oxford and IBH- Scientific information.

24. Dictionary of Economic plants in India- Umrao Singh, A.M. Wadhwani, B.M.
Joshi

25. Kolhapur flora, Corbett flora, Tadoba flora, Khandala flora by Botanical Survey of india.

26.   Other antic Marathi books (Vanashree Sristi) also have very good information on trees and their properties, uses etc.

27. Flowering Trees by M.S. Randhawa- Nation Book Trust- Rs. 65/- (208 pages)- explains 56 species with the help of plates & figures along with details about which species to be planted in Gardens, villages, Towns, Cities, Avenues, Highways etc.

28. Our Trees by R.P.N. Sinha- Publications Division- Rs.40/- (88 pages).Give account of most common 51 Indian Trees with lot of emphasis on their association with Indian Mythology.

29. A new coffee table book, "Celebration of Indian Trees" by Dr. Ashok Kothari, 2007 has been published by Marg under the aegis of Natural Society of Friends of the Trees. It is a large format book covering approx. 140 species with some full page photographs. The book is very expensive at Rs. 2700 discounted.

30. 'A Revised Survey of the Forest Types of India'; H.G. Champion and S. K. Seth; Government of India Press, 1968 (Reprinted 2005, Natraj Publishers, Dehradun). This is a classic and an excellent guide to the vegetation and biogeography of plant habitats in India.

31. 'Forest Flora of the Chakrata, Dehra Dun and Saharanpur Forest Divisions, United Provinces'; Upendranath Kanjilal & Basant Lal Gupta; Government of India Publications 1928 (Reprinted 200?, Natraj Publishers, Dehradun). Another classic, this is somewhat technical, but excellent for the field identification of plants in Northern India, and especially in the Terai region. Natraj Publishers have recently reprinted the book with some sparse illustrations.

There is another book, which is in the same genre as Upendranath Kanjilal's book, but on the trees of Southern India. As a very limited number of copies (1000) were printed, it may be difficult to find (I believe I have one of the last copies to be sold.). It is profusely illustrated and an excellent field guide. I hope that there are plans to produce more copies in the near
future.

32. 'Forest Trees of South India'; S. G. Neginhal, IFS (Retd.), Navbharath Press, Bangalore. 2004.

33. ”Sen’trees’ of Mumbai”, a new coffee table book, rather oddly titled, brought out on the occasion of the sesquicentennial year of Mumbai University and supported by Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).The full frame photographs do justice to the size and shape of the trees depicted and I am happy that there is fair amount of written information. Price Rs. 2000/- but discounted at Rs.1500 at Strand Book Shop.

E-books

Links to some e-books available on Trees at http://www.vidyaonline.net/arvindgupta/

1. Flowering Trees & Shrub in India by DVCowen

www.vidyaonline.net/arvindgupta/cowen.pdf

2. Forty Common Indian Trees & how to know them by RNParkar

http://www.vidyaonline.org/arvindgupta/parkertrees.pdf

3. Nature Guide Common Trees of India by Pippa Mukherjee

 http://vidyaonline.org/arvindgupta/pippatrees.pdf

 --
With regards,
J.M.Garg (jmg...@gmail.com)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1
'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna'
Image Resource of more than a thousand species of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. (arranged alphabetically & place-wise): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg
For learning about Indian Flora, visit/ join Google e-group- Efloraofindia:http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix

[Tabish]

Dear Garg ji,
You can add the wonderful book "100 Beautiful Trees of India" by
Charles McCann (First Published 1959) to the e-books. In additions to
describing 100 trees with color drawings, it illustrated various leaf-
types, margin-types, root-types, flower-types, fruit-types (drupes,
achenes and samaras etc). It is available here:
http://gyanpedia.in/tft/Resources/books/mccann.pdf
- Tabish

On Mar 20, 9:25 am, "J.M. Garg" <jmga...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have combined the feed back received from the members of Indiantreepix for
> the benefit of everybody & reproduced below (also attached as well as

> available for download fromhttp://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix/files):

>
> 1. Trees of Delhi - A field guide by Pradip Krishen (Rs.799)- Dorling
> Kindersley publication- A very good book for identifying trees all over
> India (though much more relevant to the members from Delhi) as it gives
> account of 252 species with 1100 good quality photographs. Kudos to the
> author- an excellent publication! It is definitely worth having it on your
> bookshelf.
>
> 2. Shrikant Ingalhalikar's Flowers of Sahyadri, 2001, Corolla Publications,
> Pune, (Ph. 020- 24351388) printed by Pragati Offset, Hyderabad. The flowers
> are restricted to the Western Ghats, specifically to Maharashtra. It can
> also be carried in your daypack.
>
> Concluding Part of Shrikant Ingalhalikar's  Further Flowers of Sahyadri,
> 2007- Field guide to additional 1200 flowers of North- Western Ghats of
> India, Price- Rs. 800. Though the field guide is titled as Flowers of
> Sahyadri, it is useful for most plants of all the regions. Besides it also
> covers trees found in urban habitats. May be it is the first ever such
> publication.  It has breath- taking photographs!  Every species described
> has beautiful photograph. The design, description, photos and the layout are
> par excellence!
>
> 2B. Forest Flora of the Bombay Presidency and Sind/ W.A. Talbot. Reprint.
> First published: Poona, Government of Bombay, 1909. 1984, 2 v., 508, 574 p.,
> 541 figs., $63. Reprint of The Flora Of The Presidency Of Bombay 1903-1908 2
> Vols. Set by T. Cooke-Publisher: Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, 1983
> (Reprint), Dehradun.
>
> 3. Concise flowers of the Himalayas by Oleg Polunin & Adam

> Stainton(Rs.450)- Oxford

> *E-books*
>
> Links to some e-books available on Trees athttp://www.vidyaonline.net/arvindgupta/

>
> 1. Flowering Trees & Shrub in India by DVCowen
>
> www.vidyaonline.net/arvindgupta/cowen.pdf
>
> 2. Forty Common Indian Trees & how to know them by RNParkar
>
> http://www.vidyaonline.org/arvindgupta/parkertrees.pdf
>
> 3. Nature Guide Common Trees of India by Pippa Mukherjee
>
>  http://vidyaonline.org/arvindgupta/pippatrees.pdf
>
>  --
> With regards,

> J.M.Garg (jmga...@gmail.com)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1

> 'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna'
> Image Resource of more than a thousand species of Birds, Butterflies, Plants
> etc. (arranged alphabetically & place-wise):http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg
> For learning about Indian Flora, visit/ join Google e-group- Efloraofindia:http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix
>

>  Books on Indian Trees & Plants.doc
> 56KViewDownload

[Prashant awale]

Thanks Dear Garg ji and Tabish ji for the list.
regards
Prashant

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group.
To post to this group, send email to indian...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to indiantreepi...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix?hl=en.

[J.M. Garg]

A reply:

"Garg ji a new volume vol V pertaining to monocots has already come out  by Dr. Almeida as Flora of Maharahstra. I have been informed  a sixth volume too wil be coming out on grasses and so on in some time.
 
regads,
Rashida."

[J.M. Garg]

Some further feedback required:

"I like to know more about the following numbered texts,
 
2B, 14, 19,30, and 31" from Vijayadas ji.

[rashida atthar]

Vijayadas ji,
 
The book 2B Flora of Presidency of Bombay - T. cooke, reprint 2006, has two volumes. Vol I is Ranunculaceae to Rubiaceae and Vol II-Compositae to Gramineae.
 
Dr. Almeida 's Flora of Mah. volumes have added the missing plants in these volumes and also the new and changed names.
 
In the latest list from Nataraj publishers the book nos 30 and 31 too are available 
 
 
regards,
Rashida.  

 

 

---

Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:48:20 +0530
Subject: [efloraofindia:30488] Re: Books on Indian Trees & Plants
From: jmg...@gmail.com
To: indian...@googlegroups.com

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group.
To post to this group, send email to indian...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to indiantreepi...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix?hl=en.

---

IPL - III and all the controversies Drag n’ drop

[jmgarg1]

A reply:

"Hello,

 

I just came across a small, 100-page book titled " Wild Flowers of Kashmir" (Series 1) by B O Coventry, Conservator of Forests, printed in London 1953. 50 species of flowers have been described. I don't know if futher series were printed.

 

Incidentally, I am now working for 'Raptor Research and Conservation Foundation' which is based in Mumbai. My Foundation's focus will be on studies of Birds of Prey of which so little is known in India.

 

Cheers,

Kiran Srivastava

Mumbai "

--

With regards,
J.M.Garg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1

'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna'

The whole world uses my Image Resource of more than a thousand species & eight thousand images of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. (arranged alphabetically & place-wise): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg. You can also use them for free as per Creative Commons license attached with each image.

For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora, please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group: http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix (more than 1860 members & 1,15,000 messages on 30/4/12) or Efloraofindia website: https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/ (with a species database of more than 6500 species).

Also author of 'A Photoguide to the Birds of Kolkata & Common Birds of India'. 

[JANAKI TURAGA]

Gargji

here are 5 more additions to the list, each book is followed by few lines which describes the book:

1: Medicinal Plants: Dr. S.K.Jain. National Book Trust of India, New Delhi. The book lists 84 plants including trees with medicinal properties commonly used, with their latin and indian names, description, distribution, and drug and properties. Must have book and especially useful for this group. Published in 1968, the book has undergone many many reprints attesting to its continued usefulness and popularity. Few colour and black and white photographs.

 

2. Field Guid to the Common Trees of India: PV Bole and Yogini Vaghani.World Wide Fund For Nature India and Oxford University Press New Delhi. Published in 1986, this little book with line drawing illustrations for every tree(there are approximately 100), gives brief description and identification information. The authors give a key to identification of the trees which is necessary for identification. One of the early books on trees for the layman which leans towards more on the botanist side, than on the layman side. But this is not the issue with this book per se, but the issue with guides on nature as such-trees which are faced with the issue of balance of how to make a layman friendly guide without losing the scientific base.

 

3. Tree Directory of Chandigarh: RK Kohli, KS Arya, HP Singh, HS Dhillon.Lovedale Educational Publishers, New Delhi, 1994. A wonderful and insightful book on trees of Chandigarh which gives the layout of the city of Chandigarh with its avenue trees, both of which were planned. Maps and many colour photographs. One of the few books on trees of a city in India.

 

4. Birds and Trees of Tolly: Kushal Mookherjee. Tollygunge Club, Calcutta, now Kolkota, 1995. A lovely little book brought out by the Tollygunge Club, Calcutta, with numerous colour photogrhaphs and hold your breath!-colour paintings of birds and anials found on the premises of the Tollygunge Club. It is an amazing record of birds and animals that are found in an undisturbed space of greenery, even though it has been designed for the use of humans, which still supports such an amazing array of wildlife!! The cover illustration is just lovely! If every other club like that of Tollygunge can make an inventory of its plants and wildlife then these will make their presence in the wildlife support areas of India. A more recent book on a club supporting birds etc. is that of India International Center.

 

5. Blossoms of Bangalore:  TP Issar. Most likely self published with acknowledged financial assistance of many, 1994, Bangalore(now Bengaluru). One of the few books which document a city's greenery from historical, colonial and post Independent times. Vivid descriptions with photographs and colour paintings including botanical paintings(archival material), and by artists such as Rumale and others. A very interesting and lovely Coffee Table book.

 

6. Common Trees: H  Santapau. National Book Trust of India. 1966, but many reprints later!!! One of the earliest books for the layman to identify trees-36 of them with 25 illustrations and some colour photographs. Useful.

 

7. Brahma's Hair: On the mythology of Indian Plants. Rupa & Co. 1989. A lovely book with mythologies associated with different Indian plants. The 30 plants have stories with folk myths both tribal and non-tribal, and this book is especially endearing because it brings out our tribl mythologies associated with trees. The tribals are forest dwellers and they know and live with their trees. And it is wonderful to slip into their cosmos-albeit one leaf at a time! The book draws the tribal mythologies and cosmos from the ethnographic and anthropological studies. Lovely line illustrations of not just the plants but of the story too! A must have for every plant lover.

I bought this book in 1989, at the princely cost of Rs.30/- and was enchanted, and many many years later with many many plant books in between, when I recently revisited this little book, I was enchanted-again.

 

Kind Regards

Janaki Turaga

[jmgarg1]

A reply from Kiran ji:

"Hello, 

PALMS OF KARNATAKA by K Gopalakrishna Bhat reviewed in Current Science dated 25 May 2012. Price rs. 500. About 100 pages. 79 species of palms and canes. 

This for your information. 

Cheers,

kiran

Mumbai"

For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora, please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group: http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix (more than 1870 members & 1,18,000 messages on 31/5/12) or Efloraofindia website: https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/ (with a species database of more than 6500 species).