As part of All India Coordinated Research Project on the Taxonomy of Orchids, the state of Jharkhand was surveyed extensively during past two years. The major objectives of the study are to (i) update the orchid flora of Jharkhand, (ii) study the patterns of orchid distribution and identify the orchid rich localities, and  (iii) study the micro-habitat features and phenology of orchids. This presentation deals with the updated account on orchids of Jharkhand, their distribution, phenology and factors affecting these traits. Based on extensive surveys and intensive search of various localities since August 2002, a total of 50 species of orchids have been recorded. These include 12 new records for the state. Of these, 22 species are epiphytic and 28 terrestrial including one saprophytic. Thirty eight percent of the orchids are distributed in pure sal forests, 72% in sal dominated forests, 28% in mixed forests with limited sal, 65 in forests without sal, 28% on orchards and avenue trees, 2% in grasslands and 10% on rocks in the forested areas.

Observations on the flowering phenology revealed that maximum, i.e. 41 orchid species flowered during the months of May to October, out of these 23 species flowered in the month of July. Nine orchid species flowered during the months of February and March. Based on the flowering phenology, the orchids of Jharkhand can be grouped into following categories: winter, summer and rain orchids. It was observed that the winter and rain orchids, especially the pre-monsoon orchids are the most vulnerable to change in environmental conditions. Conservation implications of these observations are discussed.
 

Dr. G.S. Rawat, WII      

Coordinator(All India Co-ordinated research project on Orchids): Dr. Satish Kumar, TBGRI, Kerala