Empress Gardens plans palm park

In what may be the first of its kind in the city,the Empress Botanical Gardens is planning a palm park with as many as 50 different species,which will be planted in over five acres beginning Friday.

In what may be the first of its kind in the city,the Empress Botanical Gardens is planning a palm park with as many as 50 different species,which will be planted in over five acres beginning Friday. They will follow up with this plantation drive with several other indigenous palm species in the coming days.

We are planting only indigenous species that have been labeled endangered. Not only will it be unique,as we will be planting these palm trees in open amphitheater style,with the shorter varieties in the centre,this palm park will also give people a chance to study a variety of rare species, said Shrinath Kavade,a botanist with the Agri Horticultural Society of Western India. A similar park exists only at the Indian botanical Gardens in Kolkata.

The group is beginning with around 200 individual shoots of 50 species,but will be procuring up to 100 species in the near future. Their efforts will bear fruits in five to ten years,Kavade said. Many species will also be procured from Sri Lanka,Thailand,Singapore,and Malaysia,he said.

Kavade said that it was in 1988 that botanist S D bonde reported 45 species of palms from Pune,50 per cent of which were from the Empress Botanical Gardens. Others like T S Mahabale,head of the department of University of Pune had contributed towards recording species.

Palms,like ferns,are ubiquitous,but many species are already endangered. They are spread out at many places. No specific area has a variety at the same place,which is why this palm park will be unique. This will also be an effort to maintain records of indigenous and endangered species, he said. Out of the 2,600 species of palm,almost 400 species have been reported from America and Africa. The rest are from South East Asia,India and Sri Lanka.

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