Flowers of India

[M Farooq]

I am sure a majority here may have come across the "Flowers of India" website. http://www.flowersofindia.in/catalog/index.html

The comprehensive list of local plants (with some of them also common in Pakistan), their pictures with a paragraph of description is really commendable. Interestingly enough, the huge database was started by a PhD physicist and more and more volunteers turned in plant pictures!

One can only wish that someone can start a similar website along the same lines as "Flowers of Pakistan" where people can send plant flower/plant pictures and some botanists write a brief discussion after identification of the plant. It would be an excellent resource for amateur gardeners and professionals alike.

The Missouri Botanical Gardens (USA) did start something similar with Pakistani botanists along these lines thirteen years ago, but it was oriented for professional plant scientists, but the project was never completed. Unfortunately, this is not unusal.

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

An excellent site. It is my reference book. It tells you about flowers from all over the world being grown in India.
It helps me in selection of plants, if it grows in India it can grow here.

[khabbab]

We can work on that but right now there are not enough people around yet. They got full time botanists and plant experts who spend weeks in collecting plants data in wild. Here most of members are either stuck with their job schedules or other commitments.

There is another problem. Not enough gardeners from northern areas. And one more thing, they have put only those plants which are actually growing there and not picked from internet. We also need a pure botanist for this job. Let us wait for few years if we have required manpower and resources only then we can work on that.

For northern areas specially and southern plains in general we got an excellent horticulturist in the form of Ms Zahrah nasir. i am in touch with her but she is too busy to help in this matter. Though she will like the idea. Can try to convince her but now is not the time.

[M Farooq]

I agree that nobody here is a professional botanist. The point that we may not have enough people is also valid. That's why I said if a website is open to public for image posting (and one publicize that in Dawn via Ms Zahra Nasir) one can collect a large number of plant and flower images. It can also be kept open for plant identification. That can be a small step that will not cost anyone time like Wikipedia which is solely based on volunteer submission yet its content quality is somewhat equivalent to published encyclopedias due to open peer review.

Regards.

[khabbab]

I agree that nobody here is a professional botanist. The point that we may not have enough people is also valid. That's why I said if a website is open to public for image posting (and one publicize that in Dawn via Ms Zahra Nasir) one can collect a large number of plant and flower images. It can also be kept open for plant identification. That can be a small step that will not cost anyone time like Wikipedia which is solely based on volunteer submission yet its content quality is somewhat equivalent to published encyclopedias due to open peer review.

Regards.

I agree that this is the best option. But unless and until it is well marketed and publicized like from karachi to khyber, not worth starting it. Publicizing through dawn may not be possible because she is bound to regulations by Dawn and cannot mention any website or any person name or every a society or forum directly. But we can get her do that through facebook. There are other ways as well.

If the credit of website will be owned by only one party that is us then will not be as successful. If the credit or ownership of the website is divided among a group representative of many different kind of botanic related stake holders then it has more chances of success. I am 200% sure Pakistan horticulture society will never like the thought that some thing they should have done is now done by some one else. But if one of their reps. is included in the governing body or team, they might cooperate. This is just an example. I hope you guys understood my point.