Doveton House, which houses the Principal’s office at Women’s Christian College (WCC) in Chennai, is a beautiful, porticoed building with tall pillars, arched staircases and large airy rooms. Potted plants and shrubs line the area around it, the lawn in front of the building is a luscious green, and reed curtains keep at bay the oppressive heat.
The skeleton of a vine cascades past moss-hued, slatted windows — a flurry of yellow-flecked leaves and wizened twigs spilling across the high walls of the building. Pauline Deborah, an Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology at WCC, smiles and remarks, “It almost looks like Rapunzel’s castle, doesn’t it?”
She plucks off a leaf, crushes it and hands it over, asking me to smell it. I take a cautious sniff. The odour that arises is a familiar one — the acrid, pungent smell of garlic.
“The scientific name is Mansoa alliacea, but it is popularly known as the garlic vine because of that smell,” says Deborah, flipping open a book she holds to show me a glossy photograph of the creeper in full bloom (it usually comes to life between October and February). Not only is the plant, with its pale purple flowers and glossy leaves, singularly beautiful, it also has medicinal properties and is a pest repellent, she says.
The garlic vine is one among 253 species of herbs and shrubs documented in this book titled Grandiflora — The Plant Gallery of Women’s Christian College . As the name suggests, the book documents the nomenclature, habitat, morphology and etymology of the plants on the 20-acre college campus.
Exploring the unseen
The book, which has been co-authored by Deborah and Ridling Margaret Waller, the Principal of the college, is a sequel to TheGreen Grandeur of Women’s Christian College , published in 2010. While the first book was a catalogue of 105 trees on the campus, this one was an exploration into, “grass and herbs and shrubs and unseen flora — things that are small but extremely beautiful,” says Waller, adding that both the publications were funded by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia.
The project was kicked off by the end of October — a perfect time, says Deborah, as most herbs are in their element after the rains. Foraging for these plants all through the monsoon and winter was no easy task, but she persevered, striding across campus all through the day, collecting and photographing all she saw. “She would always have a bunch of plants in her hand, back then,” laughs Waller, as we walk across campus, discovering more tiny plants with interesting stories.
Floral stories
There is Commelina, for instance — a three-petalled blue flower named after the three Commelin brothers, well-known 17th-Century botanists. “Look, one petal is much smaller than the other. This represents one of them, who died early, before achieving prominence in Botany,” says Deborah. Then, there is the all-too-familiar Bougainvillea named after French navigator and explorer, Admiral Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, who first spotted the vine in Brazil. Or, tiny shoots of Indigofera linifolia , prized for the deep-blue indigo dye, associated with blue jeans and shibori.
A familiar-looking pink flower with a deeper-hued heart catches my eye. “That is the Madagascar Periwinkle, otherwise called the Catharanthus roseus ,” says Deborah. The species, native to Madagascar, usually colonises undisturbed spaces such as cemeteries, which is why it is often called ‘graveyard plant’ or sudukaatu malli . Despite the name, it has life-saving characteristics — the roots are said to contain alkaloids that can be used to treat cancer.
Many of these plants have medicinal properties, says Waller, adding that they also make an excellent ground cover and sand binder, one that is much easier to maintain than a regular lawn. And, they look lovely when they flower, which is why, “we rarely get rid of plants, even weeds, unless absolutely necessary: this is all part of a conscious effort taken to conserve biodiversity and Nature,” she says.
(Grandiflora (₹500) is available at Women’s Christian College)
