Dear Members It is understandable that most members are attracted by the beauty of flowers of a particular plant and don't give much thought to taking photographs of other parts of the plant. Since every member on the group is interested in getting the identity of photographed plant, and the group is becoming more and more professional with additional experts joining it, it becomes important that we have multiple photographs of the same plant to aid the process of identification. I hope with digital photography becoming affordable and large storage cards easily available, I would request members to please take at least 4-6 shots of the same plant covering different aspects, viz:
1. A general shot (depicting habit and inflorescence) 2. Top view close up of flowers (so that experts can have a look at shape of corolla, stamens and stigmas) 3. Side view close up of the flower (so that experts can know calyx, pedicel and bracts) 4. close up of a twig (so that experts can judge phyllotaxy, stipules, leaf structure) 5. close up of fruit especially from side view. 6. Seed if possible I am sure if members upload plants for ID with such photographs, the process of identification will be much easier. I know the non-botanists will find it slightly inconvenient in the beginning, but would soon find great satisfaction in doing so and serving the science in the process. I (and some of my colleagues) know how bad we feel after we return from a trip and find that photographs don't show a particular feature. It is often difficult to go back to the site, if it is a distant one, or have to wait for next visit to the area. -- Dr. Gurcharan Singh Retired Associate Professor SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007 Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018. Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089 http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/
