Flora
Berijam is rich in flora and fauna (some are pictured in the gallery) and has a few original eco–initiatives to its credit, namely, South India's first field–oriented eco-education centre set up by the Forest Department, an exclusive medicinal plants demonstration garden spread over 1.0 ha (2.5 acres) and a model swamp observation area created to educate the public. A rare species of free floating insectivorous bladderwort plant called utricularia australis is said to be found here.
The catchment of the Berijam Lake in the Palani hills falls under the once extensive shola grassland ecosystem, also called the “cloud forest”. These grasslands constitute a complex and highly diverse plant community which in turn supports a wide range of fauna from insects to large mammals. With the sholas they constitute one of the world’s rarest, most biodiverse and spectacular of landscapes. Where the grassland has been destroyed by industrial timber plantations, streams and marshes have dried out. Data on germination and cultivation of c. 250 shola species and long term biographies of c. 70 shola tree species in the area have been published.
- Medicinal flora
Development and cultivation of medicinal plants like Digitalis, Pyrethrum, Belladona, Dioscorea sp. and Mentha is an active programme launched by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University through the 40 hectares (99 acres) research centre of the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) near Berijam. Commercial marketing of high yielding varieties of these plants is now being actively pursued. Psilocybin mushrooms which produce hallucinogenic effects when consumed, and other poisonous mushrooms grow around Berijam.
Read more about this topic: Berijam Lake
Famous quotes containing the word flora:
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)