WILDFLOWERS

		Vasanthan Panchavarnam 16 அக்டோபர், 12:25 AM
WILDFLOWERS  The beauty of flowers has always captivated the imagination of man over the centuries, for they toil not and neither do they spin, and yet even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Flowers are the sweetest things that God ever made, only he forgot to put a soul into them.  The Maker himself appears to have been no mean gardener, for after creating man in his own image, he didn’t immediately go about creating Eve, but rather preferred to first lay out a garden which he charged man with attending to.  Neither are gardens peculiar to Eden alone, Greek myth speaks about three nymphs who tended to a blissful garden in a far western corner of the world, the ‘Garden of Hesperides.’ Indra Loka of the Hindu faith is famed for its celestial gardens planted with sacred trees and sweet-scented flowers.  Flowers, chiefly those growing wild, figure largely in English poetry. Blake sees ‘heaven in a wild one’ ; Milton speaks about ‘meadows trim with daisies pied’ ; and Wordsworth’s pleasantly recalls his ‘daffodils.’ There are as well Shelly’s ‘rain-awaken’d flowers, and the odorous champak,’ ; also Keats’s ‘hawthorn, eglantine, and musk-rose,’ and it would be a grave injustice not to mention the one of dear old Bill, ‘which called by whatever name, would still smell just as sweet.’ These are just a representative few, for the list is endless.  Flowers and the Nilgiris are synonymous, for isn’t the gregarious flowering of the Neel Kurunji hazarded as one of the reasons behind its name?  There is little space for doubt that the wild flowers of the meadowy mounds and wooded glens of these hills, charmed the Englishmen who made them their summer retreat, for many are the accounts about the captivating beauty of the flora, by both resident and pilgrim alike. Such was the interest evoked in wild flowers, that scientist and layperson alike, tried to coin English equivalents for the local names for them.  Those talented with the brush, the ladies in particular, went about making watercolours and sketches, and one such collection titled ‘Ootacamund Flowers,’ a compilation of more than 200 species of plants made by around 30 amateur artists, is known to have been compiled by one Mrs E. T. Browne in the 1900s, who was no mean artist herself, but this valuable collection, the only one of its kind, is now irretrievably lost.  It was this passion for flowers that prompted Lt. Colonel R. H. Beddome, Conservator of Forests for the Madras Presidency, to include two sections, captioned as ‘Beautiful plants of the Hills,’ and ‘List of flowering plants’ ;  in his chapter titled ‘Flora’ ; which he had contributed for publication in the District Manual of 1880 compiled and edited by H. B. Grigg.  It was again this passion that urged the colonisers to set about the first public parks, recreation grounds, and ornamental gardens, filled with every kind of exotic flower and tree. A few of these have now become ‘garden escapes,’ and can be seen growing wild by road margins, unattended fields, pasture lands, and etc. Most are harmless and add beauty to the existing colour scheme.  But, a few have become a nuisance, and threaten to take over entire ecosystems, the pestilential lantana in the lower reaches and mid altitudes, and the gorse and scotch broom in the uplands. The floral pulchritude is as well threatened by global warming which is now raising its ugly head, and which may make the hills witness a floral shift in a few decades to come, unless humanity at large, decides to finally mend its ways.  Common names in trailing order  1. Strobilanthes luridus (Mal. Mutta-kanni kurunji) 2. Checkered Vanda 3. Small Flowered Vanda 4. Hound’s Tongue 5. Spreading Flowered Habenaria 6. Dwarf Morning Glory 7. Christmas Tree Orchid or Wood Orchid 8. Tiger Lily aka Glory Lily aka Flame Lily 9. Bastard Mango or Hill Mango 10. Impatiens denisonni 11. Mussenda or Dhobi Tree 12. Nilgiri Cluster Rose 13. Indian Flame Tree (Mal. Palash Pushpam) 14. Rose Myrtle (Tamil. Thovutupalam) 15. Nilgiri Balsam or Leschenault’s Balsam 16. Violet Skullcap 17. Star Violet 18.Rhododendron (Badaga. Bilimaram) 19. Neel Kurunji 20. Twin Spur Orchid 21. Nilgiri Lily 22. Asian Mazus 23.Sonerilla