GREEN PAWS.....Adding Life to Life Sciences...

AUGUST 2010 BOTANY DEAPATMENT NEWSLETTER ISSUE 2: VOL 3

GREEN PAWS BOTANY DEAPATMENT NEWSLETTER PAGE 4QUIZ TIME

Here is a tree quiz. So, put on your thinking caps and climb to the top.1. Gods and Goddesses love to bathe in the water of my fruits. I am a tall and stately tree. Even a full moon day is named after me. Who am I?2. I am a small tree, but my leaves are in big demand during Dussehra. They are equal to gold. Who am I?3. Lord Shiva loves my seeds, so do the sadhus and saints, who am I?4. Grind, grind, grind! I rub myself to death to provide everyone with perfume. My wood is precious and you can also smell it in soaps, oils and powder. Who am I?5. Devi Sita spent her days in Lanka, seated in my grove. Who am I?6. Before the advent of paper, my leaves served as writing material. A hint, I also give ‘niva’ to drink, ‘nungoo’ to eat, wood to build and leafy fans as well. Who am I?7. My nuts are used on all festive occasions. I am tall. Who am I?8. My flowers are small, star-shaped, brown coloured and richly perfumed. Garlands of my flowers are sought for poojas. I’m found in many temples and even men-tioned in Sanskrit literature. Who am I?9. Lord Krishna is often depicted in paintings as stand-ing under me. When I’m in full bloom, my flowers look like golden balls. Who am I?10. Lord Dhanvantri, the doctor among Gods, is por-trayed holding my fruit in the palm of his hand. My fruit by the way, is considered as a panacea for all hu-man ailments. My fruits are part of the well-known medicine ‘triphala’. Who am I?

INNOVATIVE ASSIGNMENT FOR SYBSc S.Y. BSc Botany students were assessed for their Se-mester III, Paper V, ISA II examination in a different way. They were given experimental assignment in phys-iology. A group of 5-6 students designed and set up an experiment and compiled the observation/results with appropriate interpretation and conclusions. According to Dr. Sankhalkar, teacher incharge for this assign-ment, the whole idea of such an exercise was to make student think in an innovative manner. Plan and set an experiemnt, work in a team and learn about the physi-ological concept with practical hand on experience.

cAMPUS WATER ANALYSIS

An activity was conduct-ed to test the water qual-ity of the college campus. Different water samples from canteen filter, tap water, well water and bore well water of the college campus were col-lected for the analysis of pH, total hardness, dis-solved oxygen and carbon dioxide. The results of the analysis were as follows:Maximum oxygen and CO2was found in can-teen filter sample, while the well water had maxi-mum hardness. The pH of borewell was maximum.This activity was carried out under the guidance of Dr. Divakar Mesta by the following SYBSc students1)Aloisha Lobo2)Rizma Gomes3)Afshan Shaikh4)Venkat Bhujle

Students conducting experiments

cONTENTS1.Innovative Assign-ment...pg.12.Campus Water Analy-sis...pg.13. Herbal Garden...pg. 14.Groasis Waterboxx...pg.25.My New Book...pg.26.The Miracle of the Earth...pg.27.Note on Horticulture....pg.3 8.Quiz Time...pg.49.Did You Know...pg.410.Editorial board...pg.4Compiled by: Bhargavi Bhat F.Y.B.Sc

DID YOU KNOW?1. The banana plant with more than five hundred varieties in different parts of the world, is the larg-est plant in the world which does not have a stem made of wood.2. Strawberry is the only fruit with the seeds on the skin. A strawberry on an average has 200 seeds.3. Giant bamboo plants can grow up to 9 inches a day.4. One out of 4 ingredi-ents in our medicine is from the rainforest plants.5. Saffron is the most pre-cious and expensive spice in the world. It comes from the dried stigmas of the saffron flower, Crocus sativus Linneaus.6. Apple seeds contain a small quantity of cyanide which renders the seeds quite bit-ter tasting.

Compiled by:Sheron Vaz, SYBSc

EDITORIAL BOARDDr. Divakar K. MestaMiss Rizma Gomes SYBScMr. Cyril SYBSc The opinion and news appear-ing herein are those of the edi-tor and not necessarily those of the Principal or the Management.

Contact us: greenpaws@chowgules.ac.in

By: Rizma Gomes SYBSc

HERBAL GARDEN The department has initiated the estab-lishment of a herbal garden in the campus, under the leadership of Dr. Divakar K. Mes-ta. Presently about 80 different types of plants have been col-lected and maintained near the shade house. Regional Medical Research Centre, ICMR, Belgaum has given about 40 species of plants free of cost. It includes some commercially im-portant as well as redlisted medicinal plants.

Answers:1. Coconut (Cocos nucifera) 2. Bauhinia tomentosa 3. Rudraksh 4. Sandal wood5. Saraca asoca 6. Borasus palm 7. Arecanut 8. Mimusops elangi (Owli)9. Kadamba 10. Harda (Terminali chebula)

GREEN PAWS BOTANY DEAPATMENT NEWSLETTER PAGE 3GREEN PAWS BOTANY DEAPATMENT NEWSLETTER PAGE 2

MY NEW BOOK

There once was a treeMuch smaller than me

It's now much older than meThat once little tree

There it goes reaching above meUp to the sky

There once was a tree Much taller than me

It's cut down now you see ''Poor old tree'', ''poor old tree''

What have they done to you?I'm gonna have a look

Oops oh dear I'm writing on you ''You’re now my new book''

Compiled by: Sneya Fernandes SYBSc

NOTE ON HORTIcULTURE AND FLORISTRY cOURSE

Have you heard anything about Add-on course in Horticulture and Floristry? It is be-ing offered by Botany Department of our Col-lege and I would like to tell you more about it. Dr. Uma Masur introduced us to this course which excited me and I was more curi-ous to know about it. So I joined the course. It was a one year course which was taught by our ex-perienced teachers like Dr.Uma Masur, Dr. Thangam (ICAR), Dr. Priya Devi (ICAR), Miss. Amisha Shi-rodkar, Dr. Divakar Mesta, Dr. Soniya Fernandes, Dr. Sanjay Gaikwad and Mrs. Ratna Naik (Lily and lilac). The course taught us a lot of facts about landscaping, gardening, maintaining the plants and about different types of plants used in gardening. Lots of emphasis was given on practical sessions wherein we got to de-velop our skills in grafting procedures and flower ar-rangement. We had special classes on Auto-cad and Communication skills wherein we were taught to use computer technology in garden layout, planning and improving our communication skills. We also had an opportunity to visit Bondla and see the different pat-tern of the garden, lawn maintenance and we also did identification of different plants that could be used for different type of garden-ing. I learnt a lot from this course what about you?By: Afshan SYBSc

GROASIS WATERBOXX Groasis Waterboxx is a device which cap-tures rainwater and condensation in the air and helps the plant to grow in even the most arid region like deserts. It has been discovered and developed by a Dutch inventor Pieter Hoff through his company 'AquaPro' from Holland. It is a round container or device 20 inches in diameter and 10 inches in height, crafted from p o l y p r o -pylene. An opening at the center of the box provides a space for a plant or tree to ger-minate and grow. Top of the box is pitted with a water col-lection sheets that makes the rain water and condensation to percolate into the collection tank. Rainwater and condensation collect in the box’s chamber, where water gets trapped avoid-ing loss by evaporation. From this tank, through a small hole beneath the box, a wick goes into the ground, slowly dripping water to the plant’s root system every day. As the plant grows, its roots reach deeper and deeper in the ground,

eventually finding their own water source. Once this happens, the box can be removed and used again to grow another plant or tree.

-Sneya Luis TYBSc

http://www.groasis.comGroasis Waterboxx

THE MIRAcLE...popular medicinal plant being used as a blood purifier in diabetes, jaundice etc. We use plants for making fur-niture, building houses. Even the dry leaves are also being put up in use. These are the very common uses of plants. Why I said that it is a miracle of the earth be-cause plants maintain the global climate. They not only keep the atmosphere cool, but also help in generating clouds. Plants hold large amount of car-bon dioxide and release oxygen. By breaking the speed of water and wind, plants prevent soil ero-sion. Economically rub-ber, gum, resin, latex, camphor can be obtained from the plants Each and

every beauty of earth is the plant. It provides food, dif-ferent types of fruits to animal and human beings. It bears different coloured flowers which makes the world beauti-ful. So we can now say that the plant is a miracle of the earth.

THE MIRAcLE OF THE EARTH Hi! Friends do you know what is the miracle of the earth? Yes, it’s the plant. We know that there are number of plants on our earth. Each plant has a unique char-acter. In our ancient science i.e. Ayurvedic plants are being used for medicinal purpose. Like ‘neem’ (Azadirachta indica) used for blood purifying so also in skin dis-eases and in healing wounds. Amla (Emblica officinalis) is also a very, ...Continued on page 3 By: Amarja P. Naik FYBSc

(Source:www.poemhunter.com)

Insectivorus Plant

Drosera burmannii Vahl.

Family: Droseraceae