eChapters

Common name    :    English- Bamboo
        Hindi- Bans
        Odia- Baunsa
Family    :    Gramineae (Poaceae)

Habit & Distribution
It is a perennial tree (Fig. 15a), family common in mixed forest or dry hills, and often found in shady slopes and allovial plains.

Family : Dilleniaceae

Flowering: May- June

Fruiting: September-February

Botanical Description: The plant is a moderate sized evergreen tree growing up to 15m tall. The leaves are deep green in colour, oblong to lanceolate and 15-36 cm in long. The flowers are white, large, up to 5 inches across. The fruit is rounded, 5-12 cm in diameter aggregate of 15 carpels with each carpel containing 5 seeds embedded in the pulp.

Common name    :    English- Elephant apple
        Hindi- Cwhalta
        Odia- Awoo

Family    :    Dilleniaceae
 
Habit & Distribution: 
It is a tree (Fig. 45 a) which is frequently planted and often grown in gardens. The plant is widely distributed in evergreen forests throughout India.

General Characters
The plant is a moderate sized evergreen tree growing up to 15 in tall. The leaves are deep green in colour, oblong to lanceolate and 15-36 cm in long. The flowers are white, large, up to 5 inches across/ the fruit is rounded, 5-12 cm in diameter aggregate of 15 carpels and each carpel containing 5 seeds embedded in the pulp. The plant flowers during May- June and bears fruits in September-February.

Family : Dioscoreaceae

Flowering & Fruiting: Throughout the year

Botanical description: The plant is a vigorous, perennial, climbing plant, producing annual stems up to 15 metres long from a very large tuberous rootstock. Tubers of the plant are one to several, polymorphic, variously branched or lobed and hairy with small rootlets. The stems scramble over the ground, or twine into the surrounding vegetation. The stem is quadrangular, winged, and twines right-handed. Leaves are opposite, 7-18 x 4-10 cm, broadly ovate, base cordate with acuminate apex. Flowers are laxly arranged, sessile with 1-1.5 mm long and ovate bracts and fleshy tepals.

Family : Dioscoreaceae

Flowering & Fruiting: September-October

Botanical description: Aerial yam is a glabrous-leafed, non-spiny, perennial climbing plant producing annual stems up to 10 metres long from a woody, tuberous rootstock. These stems scramble over the ground, or twine into the surrounding vegetation. The stems twine left-handed and produce aerial axillary bulbils. The plant produces tubers; however the bulbils which grow at the base of its leaves are more important food products. They are about the size of potatoes (hence the name air potato) weighing from 0.5 to 2 kg. The flowers are whitish or pinkish in colour.

Family : Dioscoreaceae

Flowering & Fruiting: August-October

Botanical description: Stem twining to the left, terete, tomentose. Leaves 3-foliolate, palmately divided into 3-5 subequal leaflets, broadly ovate, oblique at base, abruptly acuminate; petiole 15-18 cm long. Spikes are 30 cm long, densely tomentose, distantly flowered fascicles at nodes on long peduncle. Female flowers sessile; bracts 4 mm long, ovate; tepals 2 x 1 mm, oblong, acute, hairy. Capsule 25 x 15 mm, oblong, tomentose. Male flowers not seen.

Family : Dioscoreaceae

Flowering & Fruiting: July-December

Botanical description: The plant is a perennial climbing plant. Tubers are irregular, usually long ovoid, transverse section white when fresh, becoming brown. Roots fibrous. Leaves are compound, palmately divided into 3-5 leaflets, and alternately arranged on the twining stems. Male flowers are nearly stalkless and Female spikes are simple or branched. Capsules are thinly leathery, sparsely hairy and turns black at maturity.

Family : Ebenaceae

Flowering: March-April

Fruiting: March-April (Next Year)

Botanical Description: The plant is an evergreen tree with a spreading crown. It can grow up to 37 m tall, with a trunk girth of 2 m. The bark is black, smooth, and the inner bark turns bluish on exposure to sunlight. Leaves are oblong and glossy. The male flowers are formed in 3-5 flowered cymes in leaf axils. Female flowers are solitary. Fruits are round, up to 3.5 cm in diameter, yellow when ripe with a juicy pulp.

Family : Ebenaceae

Flowering: April-May

Fruiting: (Next Year) March-April

Botanical Description: The plant is a medium-sized tree growing up to 25 m, height and 1.9 m girth. The bark is black in colour, peeling in rectangular scales, which is an identifying feature. The leaves are eliptic-oblong, opposite or alternate, leathery, up to 35 cm long, velvety on both sides when young, becoming smooth above when fully grown. Male flowers are mauve in colour, sessile or nearly sessile in short peduncles, mostly 3-flowered. Female flowers mauve, mostly extra-axillary or sometimes solitary, axillary, opposite to each other, larger than the male flowers. Fruits olive green in colour, ovoid or globose 3-4 cm across, 1-8 seeded berries. Seeds are compressed, oblong and shiny.

Common name    :    English- Lucky bean tree 
        Hindi- Putija/Putranjiva
        Odia- Poitundia/Poichandia

Family    :    Euphorbiaceae

Habit & Distribution 
It is a tree (Fig. 46 a), growing in hills, in wild often planted and self shown. It is distributed throughout tropical India.

General Characters
The plant is a moderate sized evergreen tree growing up to 12 meter in height. Leaves are simple, alternately arranged, dark green and shiny in colour. There are two types of flowers with short stalk, in rounded axillary clusters; females are green and 4 mm across. Fruits are ellipsoid or rounded drupes, white velvetly, seed normally one, stone pointed and very hard. The plant flowers during March-April and bears fruits during January-March.

Family: Compositae

Flowering: Aug-December

Fruiting: January-April

Botanical description: The plant is an annual herb. The stems are weak, erect or often branched at the base, smooth or sparingly hairy with 10 to 60 cm tall. This species is recognized by the sow-thistle like leaves.

Family: Asteraceae

Flowering: December-January

Fruiting: January-February

Botanical description: The plant is a prostrate herb. The stem of the plant is succulent, with short ascending flowering hairy branches. The leaves are narrowly linear-oblong, acute or obtuse, entire or subcrenate with 2-5cm long. Heads yellow in colour, axillary and terminal, sessile with 7-18mm diameter.

8.1 The purpose of erosion research

The need for research

A soil conservation programme needs to be based on factual information about rates and quantities of erosion. For example some land obviously needs to be protected by mechanical works such as channel terraces, some land equally obviously does not need any protection, and a great deal of land lies somewhere between the two extremes. At some point the terraces become unnecessary or uneconomic, but a logical decision on where to draw the line can only be made if data are available on how much soil erosion is occurring and how much it would be reduced by terraces. Similarly, the effect of channel terraces should be compared with the effect of alternative measures, and the effect should also be measured on the different soils and crops which are likely to be encountered.

Nowadays there are excellent opportunities for research workers to exchange the results of their work. The national and iniernational journals are packed with accounts and results of research reports in their proceedings (as listed in Further reading). Some of the reported research results can be usefully applied in countries other than where the research was done, but care is required in any transfer of technology. If the local conditions of soil, climate, or land use, are different, the results may not apply. However, research in other situations can often serve as a pilot trial to show which factors should be studied locally. Even when local conditions are so different that the results do not apply at all, the techniques and apparatus developed by other workers can still be helpful.

Family: Apiaceae

Flowering: April-June

Fruiting: July-August

Botanical description: The plant is an perennial, erect, dichotomously branched, aromatic herb, growing up to 15-45 cm high. Leaves are sessile, oblanceolate-oblong, spinosely- serrate and glabrous. Inflorescence heads numerous, cylindric, about 10 x 5 mm with the involucral bracts exceeding the heads. Petals are white or greenish in colour. Fruits are greenish, subspherical and about 1.5 mm in diameter.

Common name    :    English- Indian Coral tree
        Hindi- Pangara 
        Odia- Paladhua

Family    :    Fabaceae

Habit & Distribution 
It is a small tree (Fig. 47 a), commonly planted and also found in wild in coastal regions of India.

General Characters
The plant is a prickley tree with smooth and greenish bark. Leaflets are rhomboid-ovate, 5-15cm×5.5-17 cm and acute or acuminate in shape. The flowers are deep red in colour, scarlet, 7 cm long, calyx split and spathaceous with very oblique mouth. Pods are many, subcylindric, narrowed with 15-25 cm long. It is 6-12 seeded, seeds are 1.5-1.8 cm in size with dark purple in colour. The plant flowers during March-April and bears fruits during April-July.

One of the integral components of human and animal liveli hood is food and water without which life cannot sustain on  earth. However, due to high nutritive value of foods and ubiquitous nature of microbes, it is always at risk of microbial spoilage and contamination. World Health Organization (WHO) defined “food-borne illnesses” as diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food. Every consumer is at risk of food-borne illness but conversely every incidence of foodborne illness is potentially preventable. Several bacterial pathogens in particular are responsible for foodborne infections and intoxications.

7.1 The purpose and type of models

Sometimes the simplest way to estimate the effect of a physical process is to use an established equation, or formula, or charts and diagrams based on existing knowledge. The current fashion is to call such aids and solutions models, and they tend to become increasingly complicated and consequently dependent on computers to handle the mathematical processes.

It is important to identify the exact objective and purpose of models which are designed to estimate soil erosion. Two main divisions are models for prediction and models to assist with explanation. If the purpose is to predict amounts of erosion under alternative management practices then empirical models such as the USLE are efficient and effective. For an understanding of the processes of erosion it is necessary to turn to physically-based or deterministic models. The two objectives should not be cross-threaded onto the wrong kind of model, i.e. the USLE should not be seen as a vehicle for research studies on the mechanics of erosion. Neither should sophisticated simulation models be used as the basis for evaluating conservation practices which are better designed on the basis of experience, and evaluated by direct testing in the field.

The different kinds of models need a short explanation:

An empirical solution or model is one based on observation or experiment, and not derived from theory. It fits observed facts, and allows us to predict what will happen in certain circumstances, because we know what has happened before in those circumstances. The reliability of such methods depends on the database of experience: we might say This will certainly happen’ (because it always does), or “Will probably happen’ (because it usually does), or ‘it may happen’ (because it sometimes does). An empirical solution may be a simple approximate relationship or a complex multiple regression equation.

Common name    :    English- Blue gum
        Hindi- Nilgiri
        Odia- Eukalyptus/Nilgiri

Family    :    Myrtaceae

Habit & Distribution 
It is a tree (Fig. 48 a). The plant commonly planted in gardens and elsewhere and also widely cultivated as a plantation crop by forest department. It is commonly seen in most parts of India.

General Characters
The plant is a large, evergreen tree and reaches up to the height of 60 m. The leaves are commonly lanceolate, long-petiole, apperantly alternate and waxy green. The flowers have numerous fluffy stamens which may be white, cream, yellow, pink or red in colour. In the bud, the stamens are enclosed in a cap known as operculum, composed of fused sepals and petals. The plant bears flowers and fruits during January-August.

Family : Moraceae

Flowering: Round the year

Fruiting April - June

Botanical Description: The tree is very large, growing up to 30 m tall, with many aerial roots that develop in to new trunks, so that the tree goes on spreading laterally. Indefinitely a single tree can cover a very wide area. The leaves are leathery, entire, ovate or elliptic, which grow up to 20-30 cm long with prominent lateral veins. The fruits are 1 to 2 cm in diameter, rounded in shape, without stalks arranged in pairs at leaf axils and it changes to bright red colour when ripens. The plant flowers round the year and bears fruits during April-June.

Common name    :    English- Banyan tree
        Hindi- Barh
        Odia- Baro

Family    :    Moraceae

Habit & Distribution
It is a tree (Fig. 49 a), fairly common, seen, in wild and sometimes planted. The plant is widely distributed throughout the plains of India.

General Characters
The tree is very large, growing up to 30 m tall, with many aerial roots that develop in to new trunks, so that the tree goes on spreading laterally, indefinitely. A single tree can cover a very wide area. The leaves are leathery, entire, ovate or elliptic, which grow up to 20-30 cm long with prominent lateral viens. The fruits are 1 to 2 cm in diameter, rounded in shape, without stalks arranged in pairs at leaf axils and it changes to bright red colour when ripens. The plant flowers round the year and bears fruits during April-June.

Common name    :    English- Cluster fig tree
        Hindi- Goolar
        Odia- Dimiri

Family    :    Moraceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a tree (Fig. 50 a), fairly common in valleys and village surroundings. It is widely distributed throughout India.

General Characters
It is a large sized tree with few short areal roots. Leaves are ovate or elliptic with 7-20×3.5-9 cm in size. The most distinctive aspect of this tree is the red, furry figs in short clusters, which grow directly out of the trunk of tree. The figs do carry hundred of flowers in it. The plant flowers during the month March-June and bears fruits during July-September.

Family : Moraceae

Flowering: March-June

Fruiting June-July

Botanical Description: It is a large sized tree with few short areal roots. Leaves are ovate or elliptic with 7-20×3.5-9 cm in size. The most distinctive aspect of this tree is the red, furry figs in short clusters, that grows directly out of the trunk of tree. The figs do carry hundred of flowers in it.

Common name    :    English- Pipal tree
        Hindi- Peepal 
        Odia- Aswatha

Family    :    Moraceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a large tree (Fig. 51 a), found in common, wild or human setteled localities. The plant is widely distributed throughout India.

General Characters
It is a large tree with grey bark and numerous roots which have fused with stem. Leaves are leathery, 4-8 inches long by 3-5 inches width with tailed at the tip and heart shaped at the base. Fruit is a fig which is axilary, sessile, 1-1.5 cm diameter and turns into dark purple when ripens. The plant flowers during June to October.

Most trees legumes thrive in tropical regions but N2 fixing non leguminous trees are prevalent in temperature conditions. Callatiam and coworkers from U.K. cultivated Frankia for the first time in 1978 in pure culture. A number of non-leguminous shrubs and trees as Alnus, Myrics, Hippophae, Casuarina and Elaeagnus are nodulated by N₂ fixing Actinomycetes, Frankia with Frankiaceae (Actinomycetes), the only acyinomycete reported to fix nitrogen to date. The so called actinorhizal plants include 7 orders, 8 families, 17 genera and 173 species of dicotyledons plants reported by Gaur, (2010), whereas 200 plants and 23 genera were reported by Diagne et al. (2013). Some of the important non-leguminous families and genera are given in Table 12.1.

Family: Asparagaceae

Flowering: October-January

Botanical description: The plant is an evergreen perennial shrub. It is stemless or with a short stem up to 1 m tall, producing a rosette of leaves of about 40 - 180cm long. The leaves are sword-shaped, 1-1.8 m long and 10-15 cm broad at their widest point, narrowing to 6-7 cm broad at the leaf base, and to a sharp spine tip at the apex. The flowers are greenish to creamy white, 4 cm long, and strongly scented.

Family: Molluginaceae

Flowering: March-June

Fruiting: July-October

Botanical description: The plant is a prostrate annual herb, growing upto to 50 cm long. Leaves are in pseudo-whorls of 3-6 or opposite; leaf blade is spoon-shaped or elliptic, obtuse or acute apex with short leaf stalks. Flowers are greenish white in colour and about 5mm to 8mm across. Capsule is ellipsoid, shorter than the sepals. Seeds are brown and finely granulate.

Ecology: It is commonly found in sandy soil, especially alone river banks, occasionally found in swampy localities, in dried-up pools and ditches and in rice-fields. The plant loves to grow on sandy soil.

12.1 The nature of gully erosion

Gully erosion is spectacular and widespread, and so it is often used by conservationists as a characteristic symptom of erosion. As a result there is a danger of its importance being over-emphasized. Certainly it is most important as a source of sediment in streams, but in terms of damage to agricultural land or reduction of agricultural production, it is usually not very important for the simple reason that most land subject to severe gully erosion is of little agricultural significance. The really spectacular erosion so popular in non-technical reports shows large areas cut up by deep interconnecting gullies, but this situation is usually found in semi-arid climates unsuitable for any serious agriculture, or on soils which have such adverse chemical or physical properties that their potential production is very low. Added to this is the fact that gully control is always difficult and expensive, so the cost of reclamation usually exceeds the value of the land. Certainly in the sense of reducing the amount of eroded soil choking the dams and rivers it may be highly desirable to do something about gully erosion, but it is very much a case of prevention being better than cure. Limited resources in manpower, money and materials can usually be better employed in preventing future gullies than in curing existing ones.

The worldwide occurrence and recognition is well demonstrated in the variety of names: in English and American - gully, in Egypt - wadi, in South Africa - donga, in French-speaking lands - ravine, in India - nulla, in South America - carcava, or arroyo, and many others. The definition is the same in any case, a steep-sided eroding watercourse which is subject to intermittent flash floods. They are more common in semi-arid climates with infertile soils and sparse vegetation, but some spectacular examples are found in tropical forests in deep soils with dense vegetation.

Family: Malvaceae

Flowering: July-October

Fruiting: October-February

Botanical description: The plant is a robust branched, annual herb that grows 4-7 ft tall and almost as broad. Leaves are dark green in colour, about 6 in across, deeply dissected into 3-5 narrow lobes. The stems, branches, leaf veins, and leaf stalks are reddish purple. The flowers of the plant are yellow with deep purple centre and about 3 inches across. The sepals of the flowers are prominent, fleshy, bright red in colour. Capsule is ovoid, 1.5 cm across with brownish seeds.

Family: Violaceae

Flowering: Round the year

Fruiting: Round the year

Botanical description: The plant is a perennial herb The plant grows upto to 60 cm high, often branched and spreading. Leaves are sub-sessile, linear to lanceolate, 1-5 cm long with recurved to revolute margins or occasionally flat. The flowers are pink in colour with 5 petals. Capsule is subglobose, 4-9mm long with 5-12 seeds pitted between ribs.

Family: Hydroleaceae

Flowering: November-January

Fruiting: February-April

Botanical description: The plant is an annual, aquatic, ascending or prostrate herb, sparingly branched growing up to 1.2 meters in length, and rooting at the lower nodes. The leaves are lanceolate, 4-10 mm long, and pointed at both ends. The flowers are very numerous, bright blue in colour, 8-10 mm across and borne in racemes. The sepals are hairy, green, oblong-linear, and about 5 mm long. The capsule is ovoid, surrounded by the persistent sepals, and contains numerous, minute, oblong seeds.

Family: Acanthaceae

Flowering: October-December

Fruiting: January-February

Botanical description: The plant is a stout aquatic perennial herb growing up to 1-2 m high. The stems are erect, unbranched and hairy near swollen nodes. The leaves are sessile, linear- oblong, stalkless, 10-15 cm long, occur in whorls of 6 at each node on the stem. Straight, yellow, 4 cm long spines are present in the axil of each leaf. Flowers are purple in colour, occur in 4 pairs at each node and open in opposite pair.

Common name    :    English- Garden Balsam
        Hindi- Gul-mendi 
        Odia- Haragaura

Family    :    Balsaminaceae
 
Habit & Distribution
It is a herb (Fig. 52 a) commonly cultivated in gardens and also self-sown in waste lands, forest edges, roadsides. It is distributed throughout India.

General Characters
The plant is an erect annual herb, growing upto 30-80 cm in height with stilt roots from the lower nodes. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate and 2.5-9 cm long and 1-2.5 cm broad. Flowers are pink, red and white in colour with 2.5-5 cm in diameter. Flower stalks are up to 1-5 cm long. Capsules are ovoid ellipsoid and 1.5-2.5 cm long. The plant flowers and bears fruits during August-December.

India over several millenniums has been the treasure land of biological wealth, intellectual knowledge and spiritual wisdom. During both pre and post Vedic periods, arts, science and technology had flourished well in various fields. Indian agriculture to some extent is much traditional and dates back to about 10,000 years. India with its traditional crop varieties and crop production technologies was able to feed its population and also exporting some selected produces to other continents. All the Indian villages had been the self sufficient, self sustained and self reliant units. The development of modern agricultural production was achieved by creating large scale specialized farm production units, increased mechanization and use of chemical inputs.

Family: Convolvulaceae

Flowering: Most part of the year

Fruiting: Most part of the year

Botanical description: The plant is a semi-aquatic tropical herbaceous plant. The stem of the plant is thick, fistular or spongy, rooting at the nodes trailing on moist soil or mud, or floating on water. Leaves are variable in shape and size,such as ovate-oblong, ovate- triangular, lanceolate, elliptic-oblong.The flowers are trumpet-shaped, 3-5 cm diameter, usually white in colour with a purple center.Capsule ovoid, glabrous and 2-4 seeded.

Common name    :    English- Scarlet morning glory         
        Hindi- Lalpungli
        Odia- Panikod

Family    :    Convolvulaceae
 
Habit & Distribution
The plant is (Fig. 53 a) a herbaceous climber, common in open forests and open places over hedges, bushes, fairly naturalized. It is naturalized throughout India.

General Characters
It is a twining, smooth to hairy annual plant. Leaves are ovate or broadly ovate, heart shaped having bases with pointed tips. The flowers are red in colour with a longer stalk than the leaves. Each flower stalk may bear a single flower or may have several flowers. The fruit is a round capsule up to 8 mm in diameter containing few seeds. Flowering and fruiting occurs during September-January.

Common name    :    English- Yellow-Throated Morning Glory     
        Hindi- Neelkalme
        Odia- Kaladana

Family    :    Convolvulaceae

Habit & Distribution
The plant is an ornamental climber (Fig. 54a), common in waste places and road sides. It is widely distributed throughout the tropical countries.

General Characters
It is a climber. Stems trail for several metres and climb over low bushes, reddish, muriculate, hairless or velvety. The Leaves are ovate, 5-15 × 5-15 cm, blunt or long-pointed at the tip and heart-shaped. Flowers are funnel-shaped, blue with purplish tinge, 3.5-4.5 cm long, with a yellow center and borne in several-flowered cymes. The cyme is carried on a stalk 5-25 cm long. Capsule is ovoid to globose, hairless. Seeds are trigonous, brownish, hairless or very shortly velvet-hairy.

Common name    :    English- Royal jasmin         
        Hindi- Chameli
        Odia- Niali/Banamali

Family    :    Oleaceae

Habit & Distribution 
It is a shrub (Fig. 55 a), commonly found in forests and distributed in Central and Southern India.

General Characters
The plant is nearly erect, not twining or climbing. Branchlets are hairy. Leaves are simple, opposite, variable in size up to 18 cm long and 10 cm broad with long pointed end. Flowers are white, fragrant, three forked clusters with flowers stalk of 5 mm long. Berry is mostly simple, 1-1.5 cm long, ellipsoid and black when ripe. The plant flowers during March-May and bears fruits during June-July.

Common name    :    English- Bellyache bush         
        Hindi- Ratanjoti 
        Odia- Baigoba/Baigewa

Family    :    Euphorbiaceae

Habit & Distribution
It is a shrub (Fig. 56 a), very commonly found in waste ground, village hedges, roadsides and scrub forests. The plant is cultivated and naturalized in several parts of India.

General Characters
The plant is a small dark colored glandular hairy shrub, 0.8-1.8 m in height. The leaves are 6-12 cm in diameter, palmatly 3-5 lobed, entire with 3-5 cm long petiole. Flowers are red with yellow centre. The petioles and stipules have glandular hairs. It flowers and bears fruits during July-October.

Common name    :    English- Peregrina/Spicy jatropha
     
Family    :    Euphorbiaceae

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a shrub, usually planted in gardens.

General Characters
It is a small erect and branched shrub (Fig. 57 a). The leaves are entire, elliptic-oval, may be fiddle shaped with 7 inches long. The flowers are red and pink and about 2.5 cm across and borne in many flowered clusters at branch end. Fruit is rounded-trigonous. The plant bears flowers and fruits in most parts of the year.

Family: Cucurbitaceae

Flowering: July-October

Fruiting: November-January

Botanical description: The plant is a vigorous, annual, climbing herb. It grows fast and may begin to flower only two months after seeding. The vine is branched and climbs by means of tendrils along the stem. The foliage is covered with soft hairs and has a foul musky odor when crushed. The leaves of the plant are up to 15 inches wide, circular in overall shape, with smooth margins, a few broad lobes, or with undulate margins. Leaves have a velvety texture because of the fine hairs, especially on the undersurface. The flowers are white in colour and borne singly on the axils of the leaves, the males on long peduncles and the females on short peduncles. Fruits are of various shapes like bottle or dumb bell-shaped, rounded or elongated.

Common name    :    Odia- Laoo
        English-Calbash     
        Hindi- Lauki

Family    :    Cucurbitaceae

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a climber (Fig. 58 a), commonly cultivated and distributed throughout India.

General Characters
It is an annual vigorous herb, running or climbing vine with large leaves and with lush appearance. Leaves are simple, 17-20 cm diameter, short and softly hairy with kidney or heart shaped outlines. Flowers are white, up to 4 inches in diameter with spreading petals. Fruits are of various shapes, in different varieties, like bottole or dumbbell shaped, rounded or elongated. The plant flowers during July-January and bears fruits during cold season.

Common name    :    English- Wild sage 
        Hindi- Raimuniya 
        Odia- Naguari

Family    :    Verbenaceae
 
Habit & Distribution 
It is a shrub (Fig. 59 a), commonly found in roadsides, wasteland, damp site etc. It is distributed throughout India.

General Characters
The plant is an evergreen shrub grows up to 6 ft height and may spread 8 ft in width. The leaves are ovate-oblong, about 2-5 inches long with rounded tooth edges and a textured surface. Stem and leaves surfaces are covered with rough hairs and emit an unpleasant aroma when crushed. Flowers usually white-pink or orange-yellow in colour and are held in clusters that are typically 1-2 inches across. Fruits are small, globose, fleshy, purplish black berries after ripe. The plant bears flowers and fruits in all round the year.

Family: Brassicaceae

Flowering: June-August

Fruiting: August-October

Botanical description: The plant is an annual herb that reaches at a height upto 2 ft, with many branches on the upper part. The leaves are entire, the upper ones are stalkless whereas the lower ones are stalked. Flowers are white to pinkish in color, small, 2 mm across, borne in long racemes. The fruits are small pods, obovate, with two seeds per pod. The seeds are brownish red in colour and become slimy when soaked in water. Garden cress is native to mediterranean region, introduced and naturalised, cultivated throughout the world. Within India, it is cultivated as a salad plant and found as an escape.

Family: Lamiaceae

Flowering: July-October

Fruiting: October-January

Botanical description: The plant is an erect and diffusely branched annual herb, growing up to 20-60 cm in height. Leaves are linear or oblong, 2.5 to 7.5 cm long with blunt tips and scalloped margins. Whorls are large, terminal and axillary, about 2.5 cm in diameter and crowded with white bell shaped flowers. Calyx is variable, with an upper lip and short, triangular teeth. Nutlets are 2.5mm in size, smooth and brown.

Family: Plantaginaceae

Flowering: September-November

Fruiting: December-February

Botanical description: The plant is a perennial, small marsh herb. Stems are much branched, hairless. The aerial stems are up to 15 cm height, simple or branched, hairless, with stalked or stalkless glands. The submerged leaves are 1.5-2.5 cm in size, pinnately cut into segments which are flattened to capillary. The aerial leaves are usually whorled, pinnately lobed, 0.4-2 cm, sometimes few opposite and toothed. Flowers arise singly in the axils of aerial leaves. Flower stalk is slender, and 2-10 mm in length. Petals are botched with dark purple or reddish spots. The capsule is dark brown, compressed with ellipsoid to round in shape.

Family : Rutaceae

Flowering: February-April

Fruiting: November-January

Botanical Description: The plant is an erect, slow-growing tree with a few upward-reaching branches. The bark is ridged, fissured and scaly with sharp spines. The leaves are alternate, 3 to 5 in long, dark-green in colour, leathery, often minutely toothed, blunt or notched at the apex, are dotted with oil glands and slightly lemon-scented when crushed. Flowers are greenish or reddish in colour, 1/2in across, are borne in small, loose, terminal or lateral panicles. The tree is mostly known for its hard woody fruit, size of a tennis ball, round to oval in shape. The pulp is brown, odorous, resinous, acid or sweetish, with numerous small, white seeds scattered through it.

Common name    :    English- Angled luffa
        Hindi- Karvitori
        Odia- Pita taradi

Family    :    Cucurbitaceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a climber (Fig. 60 a), widely cultivated and also found in wild. It is cultivated throughout India.

General Characters
It is an annual climber with smooth and angled stem. The leaves are 5-7 lobed or angled, 7.5-15 cm across and covered with short hairs. Flowers are yellow in colour with male and female in the same axil. The fruits are ribbed and cylindricaly shaped and 1-2 feet in length. The plant bears flowers and fruits during August-November.

Family : Sapotaceae

Flowering: February-April

Fruiting: May-July

Botanical Description: The plant is a large or moderate-sized tree, smooth and brown bark with pubescent or tomentose branchlets. The leaves are clustered near the ends of the branches, elliptic, oblong or ovate and acuminate. The flowers are cream coloured, fleshy, on rusty tomentose pedicel and clustered at the end of the usually leafless branches. The fruits are fleshy, green berries, quite large and containing from one to four shiny, brown seeds.

Common name    :    English- Mango
        Hindi- Aam
        Odia- Amba 
            
Family    :    Anacardiaceae

Habit & Distribution
It is a tree (Fig. 61 a) grows wild in valleys and widely cultivated throughout tropical India.

General Characters
The plant is a large, erect and ever green tree gowing up to 30-80 ft in height with a broad and rounded canopy. The leaves are variable in size and shape, usually lanceolate, entire, acute to acuminate with 10-20 cm in size. The flowers are greenish-yellow, small and polygamous with 5 lobed calyx which are ovate-oblong or elliptic in shape and remain spreading. There is a great variation in the size, colour and flavour of the fruits. They may be nearly round, oval, ovoid-oblong or somewhat kidney shaped and usually yellow in colour when ripe. The plant bears flowers during January-March and fruits during April-May.

Family : Sapotaceae

Flowering: November-January

Fruiting: March-June

Botanical Description: The plant is a tree growing up to 3-12 m tall, with gray bark and smooth branchlets. The leaves are alternately arranged often closely clustered towards the end of branchlets, obovate to obovate-elliptic leaf blade with 0.8-2 cm leaf-stalks. Flowers are white or light yellow in colour, about 4 mm in size and arise in fascicles in leaf axils. Berry is oblong to ellipsoid, 1- 2 seeded and yellow when ripe.