Cryptogamic garden
Context:
- India’s first cryptogamic garden opens in Dehradun.
More about news:
- Around 50 species have been grown in the garden at Deoban in Chakrata at a commanding height of 9,000 ft.
- It is housing nearly 50 species of lichens, ferns and fungi was inaugurated in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun district.
- It is spread over three acres and its low pollution levels and moist conditions are conducive for the growth of these species.
- Deoban has pristine majestic forests of Deodar and Oak which create a natural habitat for cryptogamic species.
Cryptogamae
- It means “hidden reproduction” referring to the fact that no seed, no flowers are produced. Thus, cryptogams represent the non-seed bearing plants.
- Algae, bryophytes (moss, liverworts), lichens, ferns and fungi are the best-known groups of cryptogams that require moist conditions to survive.
- Algae comprises the most primitive organisms which are predominantly aquatic, both in marine as well as freshwater habitats.
- Bryophytes are the simplest and primitive land plants that occupy an intermediate position between algae and pteridophytes.
- Lichens are a complex life form that is a symbiotic partnership of two separate organisms, a fungus and an algae
- Ferns are the largest living group of primitive vascular plants while fungi is a kingdom of usually multicellular eukaryotic organisms that are heterotrophs.