Academic Blog 2 - A Plant Tour of MCC

History

This blog summarizes the campus plant walk given by Professor D. Narasimhan of the MCC Biology department on 11/7 at 2PM. He started with the early history of the campus, explaining how it was not originally a prosperous forest. The degraded state of the land was helpful in the college’s negations for its purchase from the government. Starting in 1919, the college leadership began wrangling with the administrators of Selaiyur Forest, and eventually secured a 390 acre tract of poor quality land. Hostel and classroom construction took several years, and he school eventually moved to its current home in 1937.

            Professor Edward Barnes, a chemist by training but a botanist by passion, took over the greening of the campus. Barnes and his wife, who assisted him immensely, never planted saplings, but gathered seeds from their various travels to bring back to MCC. Besides introducing these seeds, they didn’t interfere much with the natural process of biological succession.

The diversity visible on campus today results from nearly 70 years of unhindered growth. Biodiversity comes from birds and bats which imported species from many nearby areas. The vegetation as a whole is not super tall, and many are thorny, an adaptation to grazing and dryness. This type of growth is referred to as a tropical dry evergreen forest. It originally existed in a thin strip along the coast but has been heavily developed so that only about one percent of it remains.

One serious ecological issue plagues MCC today: the deer. The spotted deer we see everywhere on campus are not native, but escaped inside the walls from the neighboring Ghandi national park in the 1980’s. The deer cannot be killed, since gun ownership is illegal and, besides that, hunting on a college campus would never be allowed. The nearby air force base spent 4 lak rupees to round them all up and move them elsewhere, but such funding is not available to MCC. Additionally, like our tour group, the students at MCC have taken a liking for the deer, and would probably resist their removal by any means.

The deer have noticeably affected the forest structure by thinning out the undergrowth because they are approaching the carrying capacity of the campus. This will drastically shift the makeup of the plants because they graze harshly on saplings all but the most unpalatable species. Soon, only the species inappropriate for deer will remain. This represents an unnatural state which good management policies should definitely avoid.

Tour

The following map provides an approximation of our tour route starting from the International Guest House and the plant species we stopped to observe.

1 – Memecylon: Mentioned as far 2000 years ago in ancient Tamil literature. Flowers in the monsoon and then yields small fruit.

2 – Ziziphufs: Small berry also. Smells good and provides good vitamin C

3 – Todalia Asiatica: Good pungent aroma and taste.

4 – Glivicedia sepium: Introduced by the British as a quick nitrogen source. Also makes good rat poison.

5 – Scyivia Myrtium: When berries turn blue you can eat.

6- Gymnema Sylvestry: Chew leaves to numb taste buds. Sweet things will no longer taste sweet for about an hour or so after consumption.

8 – Cycas cercinalas: On earth since the Jurassic period

9 – Muriah cauricalata: Jasmine relative with odor similar to the jasmine

10 – Pipul Tree: Sacred religious tree with heart shaped leaves. Buddha obtained enlightenment under the lodi tree, which is a specific pipul tree specimen. This, like the banyan, is a member of the fig family, and a keystone species, which refers to a plant that provides good habitat to support a variety of life like birds, epiphites, insects and rodents.

11 – Tamrindus: Has edible brown pods and almost all south Indian food uses tamrind juice for seasoning. Name comes from tamar, which means dates, because people thought it was an Indian version of the date tree when they named it.

12- Ironwood Tree: Not a native species. One of the few trees where autografting occurs, or the fusion of its own branches when they encounter each other.   

13 – Guiacum officianil: Also known as the tree of life, this tree is native to South America, where its various medicinal uses earned it the flattering common name. 

14 – Albizia lebbeck: Bears white flowers that symbolize victory in ancient Tamil culture. Produces long pods that dry and clatter in the wind, earning its popular name of the “Mother in Law’s Tongue” tree.

15 – Gloriosa superb: State flower of Tamil Nadu.

The fade from white to red is thought to resemble the fingers of dancing ladies.

Its tubers contain alkaloids with curative properties for arthritis.

16 – Maduka longifolia: Also known as the Sapoti fruit, this is another keystone species that humans use to make liquor, lamp, and cooking oil.

17 – Morinda Pubescence: Cousin of Noni, the Hawaiian miracle drug. Edible fruit.

18 – Wild Yam: Underground tuber is used as birth control in many ancient societies.

19 – Mahogany: Valuable hardwood.

20 – Raulina Serpatina: One of the oldest medicinal herbs. Calms the central nervous system and reduces blood pressure. Applied to snake bites and lunatics.

21 – Crescentia cujeti: Also known as the calabash or skull tree, this African import bears unique large fruit that grow directly from the main trunk so as not to weigh down the branches. Bat-pollinated ornamental.