Plant taxonomic studies

EBR has been undertaking floristic studies on genera such as Impatiens that is represented by almost forty species within a very small area—that of the Nilgiris. Of these, around fifteen species are endemic to just a few valleys. If we include contiguous tracts of the NBR along its slopes, the number of wild balsam species increase manifold, thus making it one of the most important centres of speciation for this genus. 

​

EBR also documented and described (Nordic Journal of Botany 34: 708-717, December 2016) three new taxa of endemic wild balsams from the western Upper Nilgiris, giving them Toda-related nomenclature based on their sites of location: Impatiens taihmushkulni; Impatiens kawttyana and Impatiens nilgirica var. nawttyana. These were discovered as a result of a comprehensive survey of the genus Impatiens in the Nilgiris. In fact, the EBR team discovered another novel Impatiens species from the Nilgiris that was named by plant taxonomists many years later. We also rediscovered species like Impatiens denisonii and Impatiens debilis after a hiatus of many decades. Species from other genera that have been rediscovered and published by EBR include the grass used by the Indigenous Toda people to thatch their temples Eriochrysis rangacharii; also, the endemic cobra lily Arisaema translucens (see photo in Brochure).