Interview of Izhar-Ul-Haq @ thelovelyplants.com

[Faisal Riaz]

Check this out
http://www.thelovelyplants.com/meet-mas ... ar-ul-haq/

[AhmadIrfan]

A true enthusiast to the hobby, very nice Izhar

[M Farooq]

It is heartening to see nature lovers like Izhar sahab still exist in our country! We should also appreciate the collective efforts of those who laid the foundations of this forum and volunteer their time in maintaining it.

I was wondering if anyone had sufficient interest towards a collective effort in compiling an online photographic database of garden/ ornamental flora of Pakistan. It is unfortunate that there is a huge void here especially when I see foreign universities' libraries, where the books on the Flora of Pakistan are notably missing in the catalogs. Probably, the last serious effort was done by the British in the 19th century to list our South Asian plants.

Regards,

Farooq

[aykhan]

Very nice!

[Izhar]

Thank you all...

Farooq: we have this thing in our mind since long and I have discussed this with Mir Afzal sb. as well, but brother it requires complete dedication and time. What my suggestion is to start from few plants and gradually increase the database on the pattern similar to Dave's garden website.. keeping it very simple for the gardeners... your ideas on it are welcomed

[M Farooq]

Farooq: we have this thing in our mind since long and I have discussed this with Mir Afzal sb. as well, but brother it requires complete dedication and time. What my suggestion is to start from few plants and gradually increase the database on the pattern similar to Dave's garden website.. keeping it very simple for the gardeners... your ideas on it are welcomed

I cannot agree more here to have a Pakistani version of Dave's garden! The proverb aptly fits here "Do little things now; so shall big things come to thee by and by asking to be done!"

It is good that lately people have been posting the pictures of their gardens and flowers. And there is a rapid increase in memberships. We can take this to the next level. The simplest thing can be the introduction a specific section in this forum where the public can post 2-3 photos of a certain plant along with the scientific / local name and location. Like Wikipedia, it could be open to editing by members to correct the identification. One can limit upload photo size to maintain uniformity.

What do you and others think about it?

Regards,

[khabbab]

Great. Very glad to see the interview, IZhar well done!!!

The suggestion of Farooq is very good. I am more impressed by flowers of india website. The categorization and search feature is very good. We can work on it but we need more people who can contribute. It is not just about flowers of lahore, karachi and islamabad. We will need flowers growing in Baluchistan, Skardu, Nawabshah etc. If we prepare a list of those people who can contribute the list is small.

[aykhan]

Yes Khabbab is right. It is a vast country with different climates and therefore different native plants. If this project gets serious you can count me in with my backpack if someone wants to go exploring for plants National Geographic style ......Seriously

[M Farooq]

We can do virtual hiking and plant collection (on the internet :-)). I guess there are couple of people with scientific background or who are scientists in this forum but are there any professional botanists or taxonomists out here? They will be an asset.

As Khabbab shb said that he likes the "Flowers of India". I do as well. That website was initiated by a physicist but they have professional botanists as volunteers. Public submits the pictures and the volunteer botanists identify the flowers.

Regards,

Farooq