Biodiversity
The lost orchid
S. THEODORE BASKARAN
|
There has been renewed interest in the early botanists of British India. The story of Heber Drury and the rare orchid named after him.
|
When I received an invitation for dinner with Botanical historian Henry Noltie of the Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh, I was enthusiastic. I have heard about his research, particularly the three-volume work on Robert Wight who, in 1836, trekked around the Palani ranges and documented the botanical wealth of the area. In recent years, there has been a renewed curiosity in the early botanists of British India and Noltie’s work on the subject is considered seminal. My own interest in meeting him was to learn about a British botanist named Drury. Over dinner Henry talked about Drury.
Heber Drury (1819-72) was a Colonel in the Madras Light Infantry stationed in Travancore. He wrote the Handbook of Indian Flora (3 volumes) and the Useful Plants of India. Incidentally, the Handbook is dedicated to the Prince of Travancore, showing that he was not the usual, snobbish Raj Officer of that era. The British government was interested in knowing the commercial potential of the plants in their tropical colonies while naturalists like Drury were interested in the plants as subjects of their study. As an adjunct to this study, a school of botanical painting developed in South India. We have a volume of drawings of grasses made by a “native” artist whom Drury employed while in Travancore. His autobiography, Reminiscences of Life & Sport in Southern India (London: W.H. Allen & Co., 1890) provides a window to the natural history of the period.
Claim to fame
Drury’s another claim to fame is that a rare orchid of the Western Ghats has been christened after him. Paphiopedilum drury is endemic to the Agasthya ranges near Tirunelveli, better known as the Courtallam ranges, almost at the southern end of the Western Ghats. This area has now been recognised as one of the hot spots of biodiversity in the world. Incredibly rich in life forms, these hills traditionally are known for herbs and medicinal plants. The orchid we are talking about grows in the grassy slopes of these ranges and blooms in May/June, a yellow-coloured flower 5-7 cm in size. There was another G.D. Drury, collector of Tiruvelveli, whom earlier I had mistaken to be the orchid Drury.
Known among orchid fanciers as “the Lost Orchid”, now it is a much sought after collector’s item. I have only seen a pressed specimen in the herbarium of the Botanical survey of India, Coimbatore. There was an orchid fancier in Bangalore who had two plants but would not trust me enough to let me photograph them. What is special about this plant is that it is one of the relict species; that is, species found in the Himalayas and next only in the Western Ghats but nowhere in between. The red Rhododendron is another relict plant. Among mammals you have the tahr — the Nilgiri tahr here and the Himalayan tahr there — as relict species and among birds the Grey -headed flycatcher as relict species.
Rallying point
The lost orchid came to symbolise the disappearing floral wealth and the amazing biodiversity of the Western Ghats. To raise money to save such rare botanical species of the world, the plant artist Stone chose to paint the Lost Orchid and sold it to raise money.
When I first learnt about this orchid in the early 1970s, I was naïve enough to think that all you have to do is to walk around in this area and you will see the plant. I went searching for it. In Courtallam, I took the Puckle’s path, which goes along the Chithar right up to the awe-inspring Thenaruvi (Honey falls). Beyond that I walked up to Paradesi cave (because it is near Paradise Estate) which contains an inscription yet to be deciphered. That was a memorable trek. But I did not see the orchid. It was only later I learnt that this is a plant of grasslands and that this terrestrial orchid is noticeable only during the flowering season. This belongs to a variety popularly referred to as “Lady’s slipper orchid” after the shoe-shaped flower paphilopedilum. There are quite a few of this variety in the Himalayas and the Northeast but only one in Western Ghats.
Quite a number of the books on natural history written during the Raj era are getting resurrected, some through reprint and some through an electronic form on the Net. This is providing us with new insights about the pioneers, their work and the incredible wealth of wildlife in those years.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Magazine
