ADVERTISEMENTS:
In India the literature which is available stating about plants is very old. It was in the time of Vedas that the importance of plants as known to people. At that time the plants were explored and classified on the basis of their utility e.g., as medicinal, food, fibre etc. In Rigveda the complete utility of plants was given as Vrikhayurveda. It was written more than 500 years ago when there was no document available.
Ayureveda in one of the alternative medical sciences which is available now- a-days also which totally depends upon herbs. Charak Samhita and Sushrut samhita is also one of our oldest documents which deal with medicine and surgery.
The first and foremost use was as medicine and of course all these medicines were discovered by our grand old Rishi Munies; who lived their life in forests and extensively worked systematically to explore the plants. But after many years of slavery we actually lost all the beliefs and literature on plants and plant explorations which is found with the Europeans. Now once again the belief in Ayurveda is being restored.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Portuguese were the first to Explore botany (plants) in India on modern lines.
Some of their literature may be cited as:
Garcia a Orta:
Was the first Portugese explorer who first published a book in 1563 on Indian flora named “Coloquois dos simplese Drogas da India” describing a large number of drug plants.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
C. Acosta published the book on Indian plants (1578) in “Tractades de las Drogas”.
Hendrick Vem Rheede explored the plants of India. He was the governor of Malabar in 1976. He published Hortus Indicus Malabaricus in 13 volumes.
Poradiscus Botanicus was published in 1687 by Paul Hermann which was about the Flora of India and Ceylon.
(a) Nicholaus Burman in 1768 published Flora Indica.
(b) “The plants of the Coast Coromandel” was published in 3 volumes in 1795, 1798, and 1819 by John Gerard Keonig.
(c) Roxburgh published Flora Indica (1820-29) working on systematic account of Indian plants.
(d) Exploration of Indian plants was continued by Dr. Francis Buchanan, Colonel Robert Kyd.
(e) William Roxburgh was known as The Linnaeus of India. He toured India extensively for plant exploration. His collections were published in 1825 by D. Don in “Prodramus Florae Napalensis”.
(f) William Griffith worked in Assam Valley, Buma, Bhutan, Sikkim, and Central India.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
(g) Nathaniel Wallichi made extensive plant exploration in Nepal, Western India etc. He was the 4th Superintendent of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Calcutta from 1815-1835.
(h) Joseph Dalton Hooker wrote “Flora of British India” on the basis of Griffin and Thompson’s collections.
(i) Hooker along with Thomson made extensive exploration in Himalayas. Discovering many new species of Rhododendrons and published a monograph also in 1949.
(j) Santapau (1958) reviewed the work of exploration in India by various workers and published “Systematic Botany of Angiosperms.”
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Invasion and Domestication of Plants:
As we have seen in the geographical distribution of plants, they might be native of some place but by one or the other agency been domesticated at another place. The native place of the crops (plants) is actually where it initially originated.
The dependent on the diversity of its distribution e.g., the centre of origin of Barley is not Ethiopia but centres of diversity of it are found in Ethiopia because barley was introduced in Ethiopia from its centre of origin at very early stage.
Russian scientist N.I. Vavilov proposed eight centres of origin for the crop plants:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
(1) The China centre,
(2) The Hindustan centre,
(3) Central Asia centre,
(4) Asia minor centre,
ADVERTISEMENTS:
(5) Mediterranean centre,
(6) Abyssinian centre,
(7) Central America centre, and
(8) South America centre.
These centres may be primary (maximum diversity) or secondary. A primary centre is the origin place of the particular taxa. Vavilow postulated the Law of Homologous series in Variation saying “Characters formed in one species may also occur in other related species”.
Homologus series in variation is represented by wheat (diploid, tetraploid and hexaploid) or in cotton (diploid and polyploid). Vavilov also distinguished new world and old world crops.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
It is believed that the ancestral species of present day crop plants must be a wild one. Natural selection hybridization mutation etc., have an important role in domestication of crops. Man keeps on improving the varieties according to his need.
Plant Introduction:
It is defined as the Introduction of genotype from its place of origin to a new area. This may be from other country (Exotic collection, EC) or other part of state of the same country (Indigenous collections, IC). e.g., the varieties of wheat Sonara 64 and Lerma Roza were introduced in India from Mexico in 1960.
The introduction becomes secondary if an already introduced material is hybridization with indigenous material to get new another and improved germplasm e.g., Kalyan sona (Wheat) and IRS (Rice).
The invaders in early periods were the first to bring plant material (seeds) from one place to other places. It was first introduction of plants. Generally, it was the plant material as cotton, maize, jowar, apple, papaya, cashew nut, potato, groundnut, mustard etc. British people introduced Tea, Litchi, etc. from China and Cabbage, Cauliflower etc. from Mediterranean to India.
Several botanical gardens in India are conserving the rare plants introduced from outside in living condition or in the form of herbarium e.g.:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
(a) NBRI (National Botanical Research Institute), Lucknow,
(b) CBG (Central Botanical Garden) Howarah, and
(c) RBG (Royal Botanical Garden) Kew.
Various agricultural and horticultural Institute in India are playing an important role in plant introduction. It started in 1946 after the establishment of Plant Introduction Division in IARI (New Delhi). This division was converted into National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) in 1976.
NBPGR is presently involved in exploration, collection, conservation, evaluation, documentation maintenance, exchange and distribution of germplasm to various institutes. NBPGR has 5 substations in India doing the same work. They are situated at Akola (Maharashtra), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Kanya Kumari (Tamil nadu), Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) and Shillong (Meghalaya).
The other institutes of India engaged in plant introduction and germplasm conservation are:
1. CRRI (Central Rice Research Institute), Cuttack.
2. CPRI (Central Potato Research Institute), Shimla.
3. FRI (Forest Research Institute), Dehradun.
4. BSI (Botanical Survey of India), Howrah.
5. CIMAP (Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants), Lucknow.
6. CTRI (Central Tobacco Research Institute), Rajahmundry.
Several other institutes working on different materials like Sorghum, Bajra, Arhar etc. are also involved in Plant introduction.
Procedure of Plant Introduction:
Plant introduction involves 5 major steps:
1. Procurement,
2. Quarantine,
3. Cataloguing,
4. Evaluation, and
5. Multiplication and distribution.
First of all the material is procured from donor country or state on exchange or purchase basis through a central agency. In India it is carried out by NBPGR.
The plant material should be strictly certified for being free of pathogen i.e., disease Pest, Weeds etc. The material should follow country’s Plant Protection and Quarantine Law. If the procedure material is not disease free, it should be discarded or destroyed.
Then the material is properly given a number with prefix with EC (exotic collection) or IC (Indigenous collection) or IW (Wild collection) and catalogued. The details of the material are included such as name of species, variety, place of origin, place of collection, date of collection and record of the data.
The Introduced material is evaluated for its value and utility before storage. Some of the material is subjected to acclimatization by growing for several years.
Once the material is evaluated, stored, introduced or and multiplied it is ready for distribution. Any institute or person who requires it may take it from the centre.
Merits of Plant Introduction:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
(a) Getting new varieties e.g., Lerma Roja, FR 8, Sonara 64 etc.
(b) Crop Improvement.
(c) Introduction of new ornamental plants.
(d) To study inter-relationship among crop plants and their wild relatives.
Demerits of Plant Introduction:
The non-seriousness at the time of plant introduction i.e., mainly on the part quarantine gives rise to serious problems of disease pests and weeds e.g.,
(a) Disease:
Late blight of potato was introduced form Europe is 1883, Coffee rust was introduced from Sri Lanka in 1876 and Bunchy top of banana was introduced from Sri Lanka in 1940.
(b) Pests:
Potato Tuber moth was introduced from Italy in 1900. Wooly aphids of apple were introduced in North India with some exotic accessories.
Fluted scale of Citrus was introduced from Australia through Ceylon in 1928.
(c) Weeds:
Parthenium or congers grass is a deadly weed and was introduced with programme PL 480.
Phalaris minor (gulli dunda) is a weed of wheat crop introduction from USA.
Lantana camara was introduced from Australia.
