eChapters

1. Botanical Name : Aporosa lindleyana (Wt) Baill.

2. Family : Euphorbiaceae

3. Common Name : Lindley’s Aporosa

4. Name in Indian languages: Yechi pan (Kodwa), Salle mara, Sali, Sarali, Sulla (Kannada), Kodali, Kotili, Ponvetti, Vetti, Vittil (Malayalam), Kodali, Vettikan, Vettil, Vittil, Vitti (Tamil),Valaka (Sanskrit).

5. Description

It is tree, belongs to Euphorbiaceae family which grow up to 15 m height. Tree bark is smooth to shallowly fissured, brownish; blaze pink. Leaves are simple, alternate, oblong-lanceolate, acute, 7.5-17 cm long. Flowers unisexual, dioecious; male flowers in axillary catkins; female flowers in condensed cymes.

1. Botanical name : Ardisia solanacea Roxb.

2. Family : Myrsinaceae

3. Common Name : Shoebutton Ardisia, duck’s eye

4. Name in Indian languages

Bisi (Hindi), Kadna, Katapenga, Bugadi, Dikna, nilbedsi (Marathi), Manipudbam, Kozhikkottai, Narikandam (Tamil), Kaka-njara(Malayalam), Bodhina gida, Shuli, Bode, Sore(Kannada), Banjam(Bengali), Damaai Phal (Nepali), Tinkoli (Oriya).

Common name    :    English- Betelnut
        Hindi- Supari
        Odia- Gua
Family    :    Arecaceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a tree, (Fig. 11 a) naturalized and commonly cultivated throughout India.

General Character
The plant is perennial, grows up to 20 meters in height and 8-12 inches in diameter. The stem is solitary, slender and erect. The leaf of the plant is 1.5-2 meter long, pinnate with numerous crowded leaflets. Fruit is a coriaceous drupe, ovoid, 3.7-5 cm, smooth orange, with a single seed with truncate base. The plant flowers and bears fruits throughout the year.

Family: Araceae

Flowering: July-August

Fruiting: November

Botanical description: The plant is a herb, growing about 90 cm in height. It produces 2 - 3 leaves, 5 - 30cm or more in size with a flowering stem 30 - 50cm long. Leaflets are lanceolate, acuminate and oblique, uniting in an intramarginal nerve. Fruiting head 5 cm long, ovoid, berries are initially green clustered fruits finally ripening to bright red.

Common name    :    English - Wire grass/spread grass
        Odia- Suan
Family    :    Poaceae

Habit & Distribution
It is a herb (Fig. 12 a) widely found in agricultural lands, hill sides, road sides, river bank etc. It is distributed throughout India.

General Characters
The plant ascending to erect, grows up to 3-4 feet in height. The leaves may be flat or rolled. The inflorescence either panicle like or raceme with spiky branches. Flowers are tiny and hairs like awns seen protruding from each flower. The plant flowers during September-November.

Precision agriculture uses spatially and temporally variable information to improve crop management, resource efficiency and agricultural productivity. This chapter examines the integration of artificial intelligence throughout the precision agriculture workflow. It introduces variable-rate technologies, georeferenced data collection and decision-support systems, followed by machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, reinforcement learning, fuzzy logic and expert systems. Applications include crop yield prediction, plant disease monitoring, soil property estimation, irrigation planning and autonomous agricultural operations. Remote sensing, satellite imagery, IoT sensor networks and edge computing are considered for real-time decision-making. The chapter also discusses agricultural robots and autonomous machinery, practical field applications, data limitations, hardware costs, connectivity and model interpretability.

Family : Moraceae

Flowering: December-January

Fruiting: June-July

Botanical Description: The plant is an evergreen tree that grows up to 20-30 meter tall and 80-200 cm in diameter with evergreen, alternate, glossy and leathery leaves reaching up to 9 inch long. Leaves are oval on mature trees. All parts of the plant contain sticky and white latex. Inflorescence is solitary, borne axillary on special lateral short leafy shoots arising from older branches. Fruits are large arising from the tree trunk and weighting about 10-50 kg. the exterior of the fruit is green or yellow when riped and composed of numerous hard, cone like points attached to a thick and rubbery, pale yellow or whitish wall.

Common name    :    English- Jack Fruits
        Hindi- Kathal
        Odia- Panasa

Family    :    Moraceae

Habit & Distribution
It is a tree (Fig. 13 a) found in wild as well as cultivated in farms. It was introduced and has become naturalized in many parts of India.

General Characters
The plant is an evergreen tree that grows up to 20-30 meter tall and 80-200 cm in diameter with evergreen, alternate, glossy, leathery leaves reaching up to 9 inch long. Leaves are oval in mature trees. All parts of the plant contain sticky, white latex. Inflorescence is solitary, borne axillary on special lateral short leafy shoots arising from older branches. Fruits are large arising from the tree trunk and weighting about 10-50 kg. the exterior of the fruit is green or yellow when ripe and composed of numerous hard, cone like points attached to a thick and rubbery, pale yellow or whitish wall. The plant flowers during December-February and bears fruits during June-July.

1. Botanical Name : Artocarpus hirsutus L.

2. Family : Moraceae

3. Common Name: Wild jackfruit

4. Name in Indian languages : Hebbalasu (Kannada), Anjili (Malayalam), Aiyinipila (Tamil).

5. Description

Artocarpus hirsutus is a tropical evergreen tree species. It prefers moist, deciduous to partially evergreen woodlands. It grows in altitudes ranging from sea level to an elevation of 1000 m. The height of tree can reach up to 35 m and about 4.5 m in girth. The main stem is straight and cylindrical. It is used as shade tree in coffee plantations. The seeds (with 17% oil) are eaten or used medicinally. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 22 - 32°C. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 2,500 - 3,500 mm. Older plants succeed in full sun or moderate shade, but younger trees require reasonable levels of shade. It is fast growing species with deep tap root.

1. Botanical Name: Artocarpus lacucha Buch- Ham.

2. Family: Moraceae

3. Common Name: Monkey Jack, Lakoocha

4. Name in Indian languages

Lakuch, Lakooch, Lakoochi, Barhal, Dahu, Dahua (Hindi), Badhar, Kshudraphanas (Marathi), Ilagusam, Irappala, Solaippakku, Tinippalavu (Tamil), Chimpa, Lakucham, Pulinjakka (Malayalam), Esuluhuli, Lakucha, Otehuli, Vatehuli (Kannada), Dephal, Dahu (Bengali), Lakoocha (Oriya), Dridhavalkala, Granthimatphala (Sanskrit), Badhar (Nepali).

Family : Oxalidaceae

Flowering: July-September

Fruiting: October-December

Botanical Description: The plant is a small evergreen tropical tree that grows upto 25 feet in height. The compound leaves are soft, medium green, spirally arranged around the branches in an alternate fashion. The leaflets are sensitive to light and fold inward at night. The flowers are small and bell shaped, with five petals that have whitish edges. The fruit is fleshy, have a thin and waxy skin, five lobbed, ovate to ellipsoid with attractive yellow-orange in colour.

Family: Meliaceae

Flowering: February-May

Fruiting: June-July

Botanical description: The plant is a tree. The leaf of the plant is about 20-38 cm in length, leaflets 5-9 pairs and obliquely lanceolate. Flower is white in colour and fragrant. The plant bark, leaves and flowers are bitter in taste.

Common name    :    English- Neem tree
        Hindi- Neem
        Odia- Nimba
Family    :    Meliaceae

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a tree (Fig. 14 a), very commonly planted and often self shown. Also seen in forests as well as in wild. It is cultivated and naturalized throughout India.

General Charcter
The leaf of the plant is about 20-38 cm in length, leaflets 5-9 pairs and obliguely lanceolate. Flower is white in clolour and fragrant. The plant bark, leaves and flowers are bitter in taste. The plant bears flowers during February to May. The plant fruiting occurs during June to July.

Azolla is a free-floating water fern that floats in water and fixes atmospheric nitrogen in association with nitrogen fixing blue green alga Anabaena azollae. Azolla fronds consist of sporophyte with a floating rhizome and small overlapping bi-lobed leaves and roots. Rice growing areas in South East Asia and other third World countries have recently been evincing increased interest in the use of the symbiotic N2 fixing water fern Azolla either as an alternate nitrogen sources or as a supplement to commercial nitrogen fertilizers. Azolla is used as biofertilizer for wetland rice and it is known to contribute 40-60kg N/ha per rice crop. The agronomic potential of Azolla is quite significant particularly for rice crop and it is widely used as biofertilizer for increasing rice yields. Rice crop response studies with Azolla biofertilizer in the People’s Republic in China and in Vietnam have provided good evidence that Azolla incorporation into the soil as a green manure crop is one of the most effective ways of providing nitrogen source for rice.

The first species of the genus Azotobacter, named Azotobacter chroococcum family Azotobacteriaceae, was isolated from the soil in Holland in 1901. Azotobacter represents the main group of heterotrophic free living nitrogen-fixing bacteria principally inhabiting neutral or alkaline soils. Azotobacter chroococcum and Azotobacter agilis were studied by Beijerinck (1901). In subsequent years several other types of Azotobacter group have been found in the soil and rhizosphere such as Azotobacter vinelandii, Lipman (1903); Azotobacter beijernckii, Lipman (1904); Azotobacter paspali, Döbereiner (1966), Azotobacter nigricans, Krasil’nikov (1949); Azotobacter armenicus, Thompson and Skerman (1981); Azotobacter salinestris, Page and Shivprasad (1991). A. paspali while A. agilis was categorized  under the genus Azomonas (Table 7.1).

1. Botanical name : Baccaurea courtalensis (Wt.) Muell.

2. Family : Euphorbiaceae

3. Common Name : Burmese grape, Mootapalam

4. Name in Indian languages : Mootilpazham, Mootilthoori, Mootippuli (Malayalam), Kolikuki (Kannada).

5. Description

Baccaurea courtalensis is a trees of tropical evergreen forests of the southern Western Ghats. It is an endangered tree. The tree bears tiny crimson flowers on long stalks growing on the trunk of the tree (cauliflory). These stalks are arranged in clusters on the trunk. When in bloom the whole trunk appears red and is a beautiful sight. Fruits hang in clusters from the trunk of the tree. A tall tree produces cauliflory inflorescence. The flowers are unisexual, dioecious, male inflorescence in clustered racemes on short tubercles all over the trunk, red, female inflorescence in clustered racemes, mostly confined to base of the trunk, hence its named Mootapalam.

1. Botanical Name : Baccaurea ramiflora Lour.

2. Family : Phyllanthaceae

3. Common Name : Burmese Grape

4. Name in Indian languages

Sohramdieng (Khasi) and Sohmyndong (Pnar), Khatta phal (Hindi), Moktok (Manipuri), Bhubi, Iphek (Tripura)

In 1850, Bacillus anthracis was first reported by three individuals in two different countries i.e. Delafond and Davaine in France, and Pollender in Germany. They could not establish the relationship of the bacterium with the infection. Absolute proof of the anthrax etiology as B. anthracis was established by Robert Koch during 1876-77. The name Bacillus anthracis was first coined by Cohn (1875) and the disease ‘anthrax’ was first named by Hippocrates (5th century B.C.). In Greek language meaning of ‘anthrax’ is ‘coal’ referring to the black coloured skin or blood in affected animals.

1. Botanical Name : Balanites aegyptiaca (Linn.)

2. Family : Zygophyllaceae

3. Common Name : Desert Date, soap berry tree

4. Name in Indian languages

Hingot (Hindi), Ingala, Ingalarade, Ingalare (Kannada), Namunta, Nanchunta (Malayalam), Hingalbet, Hingam (Marathi), Tapasadruma, Angaravrksa (Sanskrit), Nanchundan, Nancuntan (Tamil), Gara, Gara-Chettu(Telugu).

Family: Poaceae

Flowering & Fruiting: The plant flowers after about 90-100 years. Flowering and fruting occurs in wet season

Botanical description: The plant is a perennial tree growing up to 20-53 m in height and 8-18 cm in diameter. There are 1-3 spines at each branch node. Leaves are thin, linear, up to 20 cm long, 1-1.8 cm wide with a long pointed tip. The branches of the plant spread out from the base and areal roots reaching up to nodes. The length of the internodes is about 15-46 cm and is hollow.

Ecology: It is cultivated and naturalized throughout India. Plant loves to grow in moist soils.

Common name    :    English- Percupine Flower
        Hindi- Jhinti 
        Odia- Daskaranta

Family    :    Acanthaceae 

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a shrub (Fig. 16 a), common in waste places, roadsides and dry places. It is distributed throughout India.

Common name    :    English- Indian spinach
        Hindi- Poi 
        Odia- Poi
Family    :    Basellaceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a twining herb (Fig. 17 a), commonly cultivated and often found in wild state on rocky grassy hill sides. Also widely cultivated throughout India.

General Characters
It is a twining succulent herb with green stem and petioles. Leaves of the plant are broadly ovate and green to purplish in colour. Flowers are pinkish or purple in colour. Fruits are berries, ovoid or depressed-globose, turns black after ripening with deep purple juice.

Family: Basillaceae

Flowering: May-September

Fruiting: October-February

Botanical description: The plant is a twining succulent herb with green stem and petioles. Leaves of the plant are broadly ovate and green to purplish in colour. Flowers are pinkish or purple in colour. Fruits are berries, ovoid or depressed-globose, turns black after ripening with deep purple juice.

Family: Caesalpiniaceae

Flowering: September-February

Fruiting: February-March

Botanical description: The plant is a moderate sized tree with ashy or dark brown bark. Leaves are often oblong, about 5-18cm, deeply lobed from one third way down to nearly the base with scarcely overlapping. Flowers are purple and large on terminal panicled racemes. Pods are 15-30×18-25 cm long, narrow below, somewhat broadening upwards.

Common name    :    English- Butterfly tree
        Hindi- Khairwal
        Odia- Kuilari          
Family    :    Caesalpiniaceae

Habit & Distribution 
It is a moderate sized tree (Fig. 18a), seen frequently in forests and often planted. It is distributed in foothill areas also and cultivated throughout India.

General Characters
The plant is a moderate sized tree with ashy or dark brown bark color. Leaves are often oblong, about 5-18, deeply lobed from one third way down to nearly the base with scarcely overlapping. Flowers are purple, large on terminal panicled racemes. Pods are 15-30×18-25 cm long, narrow below, somewhat broadening upwards. The plant flowers during September-February and bears fruits during February-March.

Family: Caesalpiniaceae

Flowering: April-June

Fruiting: December-March

Botanical description: The plant is a climber growing up to 10-30 m long. The woody stem can get as thick as 20 cm. The spreading tout branches are covered with rusty fine hairs. The stout tendrils are coiling and occur in pairs. Large leaves are 10-45 cm, 2-lobed with a broad cut. The flowers are white, 2-3 cm across, turn yellow when old and borne in rounded clusters. Fruit is a flat woody pod with fine rusty hairs, 20-30 cm long.

Family: Caesalpiniaceae

Flowering: February-March

Fruiting: April-May

Botanical description: The plant is a moderate sized tree growing up to 20-40 ft tall and 10-20 ft wide with a spreading crown of briefly deciduous leaves which are 10-15 cm across and rounded with lobed ends and heart shaped bases. The leaves are shaped like a cow’s hoof. The flowers are white or purple in colour with one petal variegated yellow, 5-10 cm across and carried in clusters at the branch tips. The flowers often make their first appearance in late winter while the tree is bare of leaves. Seeds of the plant are sub-orbicular in shape.

Family: Cucurbitaceae

Flowering: October-November

Fruiting: December-January

Botanical description: The plant is a annual climbing herb, having stems up to 6 metres long that scramble over the ground or climb on other plants, supporting themselves by means of tendrils. Leaves are roundish, kidney-shaped, base deeply heart-shaped. Upper surface is rough, lower surface shortly bristly, 5-7-lobed, with long and hairy stalk. Tendrils are slender and rarely simple. Flowers are yellow in colour, calyx tube 10-15 mm long with spreading petals ending in a short point. Fruits large, succulent, densely hairy when young, with a thick waxy deposit when mature.

1. Botanical name : Berberis aristata DC

2. Family : Berberidaceae

3. Common Name : Indian barberry

4. Name in Indian languages

Darhaldi (Bengali), Kilmora (Kumaoni), Daru-haldi (Hindi), Maradarisina, Maramanjal (Malyalam), Daruhald (Marathi), Chitra, Chutro (Nepali), Mullukala, Usikkala (Tamil), Daruharidra (Sanskrit).

Common name    :    English- Annatto
        Hindi- Latkan/Kumkum 
        Odia- Kumkuma

Family    :    Bixaceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a shrub (Fig. 19 a), cultivated and naturalized, also planted in gardens. It is frequently cultivated throughout India.

Family: Nyctaginaceae

Flowering & Fruiting: Most parts of the year, mostly dry winter season

Botanical description: The plant is a prostrate herb with diffuse inflorescences. The stem of the plant is glabrous or minutely pubescent and often purplish. The leaves are in unequal pairs, broadly ovate with obtuse or rounded apex. Flowers are very small, purplish red to reddish pink or nearly white, bell-shaped beyond the constriction.

Ecology: It is a common weed found near dry and warm river valleys; along roadsides, near habitations, in and along cultivated fields and in open cleared patches in forests. It is distributed throughout India.

Common name    :    English- Red silk cotton
        Hindi- Shalmali 
        Odia- Simili
Family    :    Bombacaceae 

Habit & Distribution: 
It is a tree (Fig. 20 a), fairly common throughout India. It is found in hot, dry river valleys, and the deciduous belt of the hills.

General Characters
The plant is a tree with prickly trunk and branches when young and grows up to a height of 25 meters with a spreading crown. Leaves are compound, stipulate, and clustered at twig ends with 12-25 cm long. Flowers are bright red in colour, 10-12 cm across, solitary or in fascicles and usually on leafless branches. Fruits are woody capsule, 5-valved with many seeds. The plant flowers during January-March and bears fruits during March to May.

Family : Arecaceae

Flowering: February - March

Fruiting April - August

Botanical Description: The plant is a large tree and grows upto 30-40m. in height. The trunk may have a circumference of 1.7 m at the base. The leaves are palmate, leathery, gray green and 1-3 m in wide with folded along at the midrib. Flowers are 90-150 cm long and branched. Fruits are ovoid, 15-20 cm in diameter with fibrous and fleshy mesocarp.

Common name    :    English- Palm
        Hindi- Taad
        Odia- Tala
Family    :    Arecaceae

Habit & Distribution 
It is a large tree and widely planted crop (Fig. 21a). The plant is native to tropical Africa but cultivated and naturalized throughout india.

General Character
The plant is a large tree and grows upto 30-40 m. in height. The trunk may have a circumference of 1.7 m at the base. The leaves are palmate, leathery, gray green and 1-3 m in wide with folded along at the midrib. Inflorescences are 90-150 cm long and branched. Fruits are ovoid, 15-20 cm in diameter with fibrous and fleshy mesocarp. The plant flowers during February to March and bears fruits during April to August.

1. Botanical Name : Borassus flabellifer L

2. Family : Palmae (araeceae)

3. Common Name : Mukkana, Palmyra Palm, toddy palm

4. Name in Indian languages

Taad, Tal, Trinaraaj (Hindi), Taad (Marathi), Talam (Tamil), Karimpana (Malayalam), Tatichettu (Telugu), Olegari, Taalegari, Taatinimgu (Kannada), Taala (Bengali), Sanskrit: Taalah

Guillame de Baillou (1673), a physician, described an outbreak of recurrent severe cough that could induce vomition and suffocation in human in Paris. The infection was described as ‘Quintan^tussis which was later confirmed as ‘whooping cough’. The causative agent Bordetella pertussis was discovered by Jules Bordet and Octave Gengou in 1906 in Paris. The Gram-negative bacilli were isolated from sputum of Jules Bordet’s son. Bordetella bronchiseptica was first isolated by Ferry (1911) and M’Gowan (1911) who considered the bacteria as the cause of distemper in dogs. Later B. bronchiseptica was known as primary cause of ‘kennel cough’ infection along with the Canine Adenovirus and Canine Parainfluenza virus. Moreno- Lopez named the bacteria B. bronchiseptica.

The genus Moraxella was named after Morax who first isolated the bacteria from human conjunctivitis in 1896.

Family: Brassicaceae

Flowering: September-November

Fruiting: December-February

Botanical description: The plant is an annual herb with stems reaching up to 1.5 m tall. Stems are erect, reddish-purple below, greenish-red above, hairless, arising from large thickened taproot up to 10 cm in diameter. Leaves are large alternately arranged and hairless, upper smaller. Lower leaves are up to 25 cm long, pinnately cut, with small prickles above and below. Flowers are yellow in colour, borne in racemes at the end of branches with 2 cm across. The pods are stout, 5-9 cm long bearing 30-80 seeds with whitish, yellow or brownish in colour.

Use: Leaves are fried with oil then eaten and also chopped leaves and stems are dried in shade, stored in an earthen pot for consumption.

Family: Brassicaseae

Flowering: November-February Fruiting: February-March

Botanical description: The plant is a herb with white edible mass of abortive flowers aggregated on thick branches of the inflorescence.

Ecology: It is widely cultivated as vegetable in the tropical countries including India. The plant grows in winter season.

Use: Leaves are fried or made into curry and consumed. Inflorescence is used in various types of preparations.

Family: Brassicaseae

Botanical description: The leaves of the plant is having stout nerves, densely congested into a subglobose or ellipsoid head which is edible.

Ecology: The plant is a herb, widely cultivated as vegetable in the tropical countries including India.

Use: Leaves are fried separately or with other vegetables, and then eaten

Nutritional Value: The plant is rich in vitamin B and minerals.The nutritional value of the plant is presented below. 100g of the plant leaves carries:

Family: Brassicaseae

Flowering & Fruiting: August-March

Botanical description: The plant is having a short stem, enlarging into a spherical edible tuber. Basal cauline leaves are broadly ovate, not overlapping on globose stem, about 10-45 x 3-25 cm across with cuneate base.

Ecology: The plant is a herb, widely cultivated as vegetable in the tropical countries including India. The plant loves to grow in late winter season.

Clinical conditions similar to brucellosis have been described since the time of Hippocrates (450 BC). J. A. Marston (1861) first described brucellosis as gastric remittent fever in Malta, the Southern European island country. Sir David Bruce (1886) first isolated small coccobacilli from an infected soldier’s spleen and purified the culture in 1887, and named Micrococcus melitensis. Later the genus was renamed as Brucella in his honour. Similarly, Bang and Stribolg (1897) first isolated Brucella abortus from abortion material of a cow. Traum in 1914 isolated Bacillus abortus suis, currently known as Brucella suis. In 1953, Brucella ovis was firs isolated in New Zealand by Budlle and Boyes from the aborted material of sheep. Carmichael and Bruner (1968) first isolated B. canis from the aborted placenta of a dog.

In India first report of ‘contagious abortion’ associated with Brucella was found in annual report (1918) of imperial veterinary research institute (presently Indian veterinary research institute), Mukteswar, Uttarakhand and later in 1942 by Polding.

Common name    :    English- Miracle leaf
        Hindi- Zakhm-haiyal 
        Odia- Amarpoi

Family    :    Crassulaceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a herb (Fig. 22 a), mostly found in rocky areas and also in plains. It is widely distributed in tropical area.

General Characters
It is a succulent herb, grows upto 1-2m in height. The leaves of the plant are simple, opposite, 3-5 lobed, thick and fleshy with crenate margins. Flowers are pink, or purple in colour. The plant has thick, flexible and short stems. The plant flowers during November to March. Fruiting occurs between January and February.

1. Botanical name: Buchanania lanzan spreng.

2. Family: Anacardiaceae

3. Common Name: Cuddapah almond , Chironji

4. Name in Indian languages: Chironji (Hindi), Piyal (Assami), Chironji (Bengali), Kole Maavu (Kannada), Charam (Tamil), Mungapera (Malayalam).

5. Description

It is an excellent fruit tree for agro forestry and social forestry. This species is found in dry deciduous forest throughout the country excluding eastern Himalayan forests . The flesh of ripe fruit is very palatable and is largely eaten raw or roasted and the oily kernels are the most important part and are used in preparation of puddings. Mesocarp of fruit is edible and cherished by children. Very good juice may be prepared from the pulp of chironji fruits.

Common name    :    English- Bastard teak
        Hindi- Palash
        Odia- Palash

Family    :    Fabaceae 

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a tree distributed throughout India, fairly common especially in the drier parts of north-west odisha.

General Characters 
It is a small or medium sized dry deciduous tree, reaching to 15 m. in height. It is a slow growing tree. The leaves are pinnate, with about 8-12 cm long petiole and three leaflets, each leaflets of about 10-20 cm long. The flowers are 2.5 cm long, bright orange red, and produced in racemes up to 15 cm long (Fig. 23a). The fruit is a pod. The plant flowers during February and April, and bears fruits during May-July. The plant is popularly known as flame of the forest.

Common name    :    English- Fever nut/Grey Nicker
        Hindi- Kat-karanj 
        Odia- Gila

Family    :    Caesalpiniaceae

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a herb (Fig. 24 a), commonly found in hedges, thickets, scrub forests etc. and is distributed throughout India.

General Characters
It is a large climber with staright or recurved prickles. The branchlets are hairy and leaflets are 8 pairs with elliptic and lanceolate shape. Flowers are yellow, simple and usually supra-axillary. The pods are broadly oblong with 5-7.5×4 cm in size. It is 1-2 seeded and the seeds are large and round, 1-8cm diameter. The testa is very hard. The flowering time for the plant is August to October and it bears fruits during December to April.

Common name    :    English- Peacock flower
        Hindi- Guletura
        Odia- Godibana

Family    :    Caesalpiniaceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a shrub (Fig. 25a), commonly found in gardens and sometimes in wild. It is cultivated throughout India and probably native to tropical America, now widely cultivated in the tropics.

General Characters
The plant is a branched shrub or small tree that reaches up to 3-4 m in height. The leaves of the plants are bipinnate, 20-40 cm long, bearing 3-10 pairs of pinnae, each with 6-10 pairs of leaflets. The flowers are yellow or red in colour and borne in racemes up to 20 cm long. Petals are four in number, subequal and transversely oblong above the long claw. The plant flowers and fruits during most parts of the year.

1. Botanical name : Calligonum polygonoides L.

2. Family : Polygonaceae

3. Common Name : Phog

4. Name in Indian languages: Phog (Hindi), Phog(Punjabi), Balanja, Berwaja (Afghanistan).

5. Description

Phog (Calligonum polygonoides L.) is a under-utilized shrub, dominantly found in arid and semi-arid region of Thar Desert. It is a typical sand dune plant, found in whole of arid zone. It is a slow growing, branching shrub. It has a massive network of underground root which works as effective ‘sand binder’ and thus preventing erosion and stabilizing sand dunes. It grows well in absence of any type of vegetation and dominant biomass producer of the sandy areas of the desert. It is very hardy and being capable of growing under adverse conditions of soil and moisture. It is frost hardy. It is becoming increasingly rare due to the demand for its roots, overgrazing and sand mining.

Common name    :    English- Gaint milk weed
        Hindi- Akoa
        Odia- Arakha

Family    :    Asclepiadaceae 

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a shrub. (Fig. 26 a) The plant is frequently found in waste grounds and roadsides. It is widely distributed throughout India.

General Characters
The plant is a stout-tomentose shrub. Leaves of the plant are 10-16×8-10 cm size, smaller in branchlets with elliptic-ovate to obovate in shape. The fowers are pale purple or greenish white in colour, 3 cm across having 5 pointed petals. The fruit is saccate, 6×3 cm ovoid, inflated and boat shaped. The plant flowers during December and July and bears fruits during February and June.

Common name    :    English- Rubber bush
        Hindi- Akada
        Odia- Arakha

Family    :    Asclepiadaceae
 
Habit & Distribution
It is a shrub (Fig. 27 a), common weed, mostly found in disturbed sites, roadsides, and wastelands and roadsides. It is widely distributed in hot and dry areas of India.

General Characters
The plant is a shrub that grows up to 4 m in height. Leaves of the plant are opposite, gray green, broadky elliptic, large upto 15 cm long and 10 cm broad with a pointed tip. Flowers are waxy white, 5 petals, purple tipped inside and with a central purplish crown. Fruits are gray-green, inflated 8-12 cm long and contain numerous seeds. Flowering and fruiting occur during December and July. 

1. Botanical Name : Canthium dicoccum var. umbellatum syn. Pelectronia parviflora Gaertn.) Merr

2. Family : Rubiaceae

3. Common Name : Ceylon Boxwood, Malakafe

4. Name in Indian languages

Amme pannu (Kodwa), Hanage (Kannada), Nanyul (Malayalam), Arsul, Tupa (Marathi), Nanjul, Nallamandharam (Tamil), Nalla balasu, Balasu naikinna (Telugu).