The Flora of Kodaikanal

Abstract

Kodaikanal is of special botanical interest for its temperate flora, rare in Peninsular India, on account of high altitude and consequent moderate temperaturé. The climate is characterized by moderate temperature with low annual range, and moderate and well-distributed rainfall.- Its flora is relatively rich, but not yet studied exhaustively and critically.

The flora of Kodaikanal has been subjected to excessive human interference, as first by noted by' Beddome already in 1858, and this has been true ever since, especially of late. A disastrous form of interference is the putting of fire during summer to ensure good growth of grass with the first showers. Recently many places have been completely cleared for cultivation. The more ornamental species like orchids and lilies, and the rarer pteridophytes have been removed by visiting botanists. Thus the flora of Kodaikanal, as it is today, is but a relic of a rich flora in the past.

The present paper restricts itself to the plants above alt. 1675 m. The flora of this area may be classified at first into the Indigenous and the Exotic, treated separately, below.