Welcome to Department of Botany, Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono Hills, Itanagar.

Preface

Orchids are one of the most fascinating flowers due to their incredible range of floral and morphological diversity and varied pollination biology. By virtue of their exotic beauty and long-lasting blooming period, they fetch a high price in both national and international markets. Orchids are distributed globally with ecological habitats as saprophytes, terrestrials and epiphytes. About 10% of world orchid flora have naturalized in India with 186 genera and about 1331 species (Mishra 2007). Arunachal Pradesh considered as “Orchid Paradise” of India harbors 50% of its total orchid species (Hedge 1994). Based on the orchid surveys carried out by various explorers, Dr. A. N. Rao enlisted in 2010 a total number of 558 orchid species of Arunachal Pradesh belonging to 144 genera (Rao, 2010). The list includes 377 epiphytic, 160 terrestrial and 21 mycotrophic orchid species out of which 98 species belonging to 38 genera are monopodial and 58 species are endemic. Additionally, some new species have also been discovered in the last decade.

This orchid database of Arunachal Pradesh is a compilation of available published resources as well as scientific information provided by Orchid Research and Development Centre (ORDC), Tippi of the State Forest Research Institute (SFRI), Itanagar. It specifically provides information on classification, distribution, salient morphology, usages, established tissue culture techniques and herbarium details. The photographs of the orchids were provided by the researchers associated with SFRI and Rajiv Gandhi University (contributors enlisted below). The database has been created using mySQL and the web interface is designed using HTML, CSS and PHP.

The compilation of Orchid database was taken up as part of a multi-institutional research project entitled “Orchid Bioresources of the North-east India- Conservation, database development and information networking” funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India in 2016 in which Prof. R. K. Singh of the Department of Botany of this University was a Principal Investigator from Arunachal Pradesh.

Valuable contributions of the following individuals and Institutions towards preparation of “Database on Orchids of Arunachal Pradesh” are highly acknowledged:

1. Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU), Doimukh, Arunachal Pradesh
2. Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India
3. State Forest Research Institute (SFRI), Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh
4. Orchid Research and Development Centre (ORDC), Tippi, Arunachal Pradesh
5. Prof. R. K. Singh, Principal Investigator of the DBT-funded Research Project at RGU
6. Dr. Ona Apang, Scientist, SFRI, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh
7. Dr. Jambey Tsering, Scientist, ORDC, Tippi, Arunachal Pradesh
8. Ms. Yani Nyodu, Range Forest Officer, ORDC, Tippi, Arunachal Pradesh
9. Dr. Pradeep Kumar Yadav, Research Associate, BIF Centre, RGU
10. Mr. Arvind Maurya and Mr. Srikant Rai, Trainees at BIF Centre, RGU
11. Ms. Radhe Bam Monya, Ms. Mum Tatung and Ms. Tadu Yaniya, JRFs at RGU in the DBT-funded Research Project
12. Ms. Bengia Mamu, Ms. Momang Taram, Ms. Junmoni Das, Research Scholars at RGU
13. Dr. Pankaj Bharali, Research Associate, IASST, Guwahati, Assam
14. Ms. Lod Yama, JRF, GBPIHED, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh
15. Mr. Nyorak Nyodu, ORDC, Tippi, Arunachal Pradesh