Efloraofindia website updated up to 30th June’21- More than 14,000 species

[J.M. Garg]

Dear members,

It’s heartening to reiterate that Efloraofindia is the largest google e-group/ forum in the world in this field & the largest nature related e-group (and the most constructive) in India with around 3,90,700 messages so far & membership currently around 3290 nos.

efloraofindia (eFI in short) website is one of the biggest non-commercial site, one of its kind in the world & also without advertisements, based on the collection of photographic images of wild plants, where no money or professional organisation is involved except for the selfless efforts of its members from diverse backgrounds. It is documenting flora of India that is being discussed on efloraofindia google e-group along with supplementing the working of the group. It also has the largest database on net on Indian Flora with more than 14,000 species (along with more than 3,50,000 pictures), from some of the best Flora Photographers of India. Members should add Efloraofindia website link in their favourites & give species’ links from this while posting or replying in a thread as a lot of discussed data is already available here.

Intent of this website is compilation of all the posts on ‘efloraofindia’ e- group along with providing other details so that it’s useful to all concerned as all the data about a particular species will be available under a single head & easily searchable. However, correctness of data/ identification in the efloraofindia (earlier indiantreepix) links is dependent on the members’ inputs in that particular link. Therefore, errors/ mistakes cannot be ruled out-everyone is requested to point them out for corrections by sending an email to <itp…@googlegroups.com>. Efloraofindia e-group members can also add comments about it, at the bottom of the page.

We now have images on all species pages. We have simultaneously started displaying these at genera & family pages with comparative images of various species for easy identification (more than 200 families already completed). Insertion of images will also increase the accuracy of the efloraofindia database. More than 3,00,000 unique images have already been inserted on 31.1.21.

More important is the fact that thousands of observations of hundreds of our members are available here (many of which one will not find documented anywhere) & easily searchable through general web searches (after adding efloraofindia) as well as by searching in the Efloraofindia website. And these are going to increase with every passing day. These original observations will be a treasure trove & will be a delight to a lot of people. With the pace at which new species are being added to our database, it should become the premier resource for taxonomic research in India. As the data is multiplying, we need more volunteers to take up this work. Details can be seen at Volunteers required.

For better viewing of species’ pages, colour scheme & formatting is being followed as at the footer of every efloraofindia page.

These days a lot of inf. about Indian Flora is available under Cc-by license (Licensees may copy, distribute, display and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only if they give the author or licensor the credits in the manner specified by these). Due credits/ attributions are to be given. Such sources include Wikipedia, India Biodiversity Portal, IUCN Red List, PFAF, Flora of Tibet website, IBIS Flora etc. I am trying to add such information with due credits. I am also trying to add keys & summarizing the information at the top of the page (for the pages I am coming across while adding information from current threads). Genera pages are also cleaned up so that species (due to wrong botanical names or being syn. of some other species) are deleted or properly connected as per the current accepted name along with references. Future eFI genera pages will be like Cyanotis depending upon the time we get, as & when we update a genus page so that we are aware which are the species which are likely to be found in India (depending on the net resources) & which are already available in eFI.

Kudos & thanks to Outstanding Contributors, The Pillars, Subject/ Area Experts, Moderators, Major contributors & other members who are rendering selfless service to this group & made this endeavour possible for the benefit of everyone.

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With regards,
J.M.Garg

[Gurcharan Singh]

Congratulations Gargi ji and all members.