Flora Photograph: Habenaria intermedia:
We have to teach every course of Botany in the colleges. However, I love to teach taxonomy, physiology (my Ph.D. specialization), genetics, ecology and economic botany. I started preparing PPTs for class teaching in 2008 by taking images from the net. When preparing a PPT of the Orchidaceae family, I was fascinated by the peculiar beauty of the flowers of Habenaria intermedia. After noting the places from where it was previously recorded in FLORA SIMLENSIS and SHIMLA FLOWERS, I started visiting those places along with my non-botany friends. One day, on my way back home, I suddenly came across a single plant of Habenaria intermedia on a hill slope. To my dismay, only floral buds were there. So, I decided to come back after one week. On my next visit to that place, I was heartbroken as that plant was no longer there. It might have been plucked by someone. I never came across this species for the next two years.
One day, I was wandering in search of plants and our Computer Science teacher was accompanying me. Luckily, we came across a large patch of approximately 100 plants. I was spellbound on finding what I had been searching for for the last 3-4 years. I could not contain my excitement and spoke aloud to the plant, “Eureka, Eureka; I have finally traced you.” Later on, I came across an ardent Nature Lover, Santosh Thakur, who works in the forest department of Himachal Pradesh. Together, we have explored extensively in the nearby areas. We have marked many places where this species flowers in the month of July. Similar to this, every click has its own story.
Thanks, Anil ji, for the interesting story and photographs.
Very beautiful pics.
Its strange that no one has done any pollination studies on this species. Its a good species to work on. Large flowers and easy to observe. Hint is, one needs to make observations both in sunlight and in dark!!
amazingly beautiful
Such a wonderful plant !! Thank you Anil ji for sharing these beautiful photographs !
Beautiful pictures! Very true: every click has its own story and the experience stays in our memories forever.
Published on
https://efloraofindia.com/2022/06/06/anil-kumar-thakur-best-flora-photograph-to-celebrate-15-years-of-completion-of-efloraofindia-on-17-6-22/
Posted it in the efloraofindia Facebook page.
Pl. give it wide publicity in Social media, by posting it in your profile/ groups/ Instagram etc.
Really impressive narration Anil Ji, and beautiful flowers too..!!
