It is Divya Umesh’s habit to wander around and photograph flowers that attract her attention. Little did she know that this could lead her to record for posterity the rediscovery of a flower forgotten for over a century.
Divya, an administrative assistant at The Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, found and photographed the Murdannia striatipetala , a lovely purple flower with white stripes, measuring about 10-12 mm, near Red Hills in Chennai, in 2010. It turned out to be a flower that hasn’t been documented by anyone since 1899.
It was last collected by Barnes from Tambaram district and by Bourne from Tada, in 1899.
Divya says, “I was visiting a place very near the spot where I found this flower. I first spotted a tall yellow flower and asked my husband to pull over. As I got near the flower and looked down, there were many others in shades of purple and white.”
She then sent the photograph to the website ‘flowersofindia.net’, which is being run by Tabish Qureshi, a physicist and ardent flower photographer himself.
Dr. Qureshi had the flower identified by Mayur Nandikar, of the department of botany, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, who has written an article about the re-discovery in the journal of Bombay Natural History Society.
Divya says, “I was thrilled to hear that it was a rediscovery. I didn’t expect that ever. To be a small part of this rediscovery will always stay as my pride.”
