An in-depth look at India's 1,200 species of orchids.
The Indian subcontinent – rightfully renowned for its ecological lushness – is home to more than 1,200 species of orchids, about a quarter of which can be found nowhere else on the planet. Fortunately, the Missouri Botanical Garden Press's new book enumerates and carefully classifies each one, following the latest insights from molecular phylogenetic studies. A Checklist of the Orchidaceae of India features typification, synonymy, distribution, habit, and conservation, as well as a key to the identification of orchid genera. The book is part of the Checklist of Indian Plants, a major collaborative project spearheaded by Peter H. Raven of the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, and the Harvard University Herbaria.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Systematics
Typification
Distribution
Key to Genera
Checklist
Literature Cited
André Schuiteman is a research leader at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He has published numerous papers on the taxonomy and evolution of orchidaceae with an emphasis on tropical Asia and is currently focusing on the orchid flora of New Guinea. B. R. Kailash is a senior research associate at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bangalore, India. Uttam Babu Shrestha is director at the Global Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies in Nepal.