A mobile app for exotic plants at the Indian Botanic Garden

With about 14,122 plants belonging to 1,377 species, the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, located on the bank of river Hooghly, is an open museum — a living collection of myriad plants, trees, shrubs, herbs and climbers. 

PROBLEM IS THAT from the tree of kalpabriksha ( Adansonia digitata ) to the ‘mad tree’ ( Pterygota alata var. irregularis ), visitors sometimes struggle to find the exact tree. So to solve the issue the APP is released.

The other species that most of the visitors want to spot are the Lodoicea maldivica , the country’s only double coconut palm; the branching palm ( Hyphane thebaica ), introduced from Egypt; the century palm ( Corypha macropoda ), and the giant water lily ( Victoria amazonica ) brought from the Amazon river, all located in different parts of the garden.

The Indian Botanic Garden also hosts the Central National Herbarium, which is India’s biggest repository of two million plant specimens, a palm section with 110 palm species, an orchidarium, a rose garden, a cactus section, and an aromatic plants section, among others.

Through the App Visitors can locate, learn about the profusion of species and rare specimens in the historic 273 acres of extraordinary flora.