Bhubaneswar: The Similipal National Park is not only a treasure house of nature with scenic beauty and lush green valleys but also a tiger and biosphere reserve replete with diverse flora and fauna. Adding more feathers to its cap, scientists have discovered two epiphytic orchids, the indicator species of a healthy forest. According to a report, around 100 species in 41 genera of orchids are found in Similipal of Mayurbhanj district. This is against 144 species under 53 genera found in Odisha to date. Two epiphytic orchids have been discovered in Similipal recently by renowned orchidologist Sarat Chandra Misra. While one is ‘Dendrobium Prasannae S Misra’, the other one is ‘Oberonia similipalensis S Misra’. Misra said orchid flower has a unique floral plan.
Out of the three petals, the rear one, known as the lip, is differently shaped and also coloured from the rest of the membered. It contains nectar or food grains, real in deceit form. He mentioned that it is also twisted half around to occupy the front position in the flower. In ‘Dendrobium Prasannae’ the lip is broadly oblong with an abruptly ending short tip – the stems are drooping, long and slender. ‘Oberonia similipalensis’, on the other hand, is a much smaller curious-looking plant with knife-shaped slender leaves. Its lip is broadly ovate, undivided, with deeply cut edges.
The former species has been named after late Prasanna Kumar Dash, former minister and Speaker of the Odisha Assembly, an ardent environmentalist and watchdog of the Similipal forest. When the Odisha Environmental Society (OES) mooted the proposal for declaring Similipal as a Biosphere Reserve, it was Dash who, as the president of OES, pursued the proposal both at the state and Central level.
ARINDAM GANGULY, OP