KOCHI: Are you curious to know about the different species of trees spread across 20 acres in the Kerala Public Service Commission in Pattom? All you need to do is take out your phones and scan the QR code on the trees. This will give you complete information on the trees, such as their scientific name, common name, genus and other properties. With this, the Kerala Public Service Commission has become the first PSC in the country to have a digitised garden.
The trees and plants in the compound were digitised with the help of Professor A Gangaprasad and research scholar Akhilesh S V Nair from the Department of Botany at the University of Kerala.
The duo had recently created a digital garden at Maharaja’s College in Kochi by digitising about 100 species of trees spread across its 25-acre campus. They have also established digital gardens at Kanakakunnu Palace, Raj Bhavan, Palayam Senate House and Karyavattam campus.
As part of the digital garden project, 144-odd species of trees on the PSC campus were documented. “In nearly 20 acres of land, there is a representation of different species of trees. The 144-odd species of plants have been catalogued into 121 genera and 60 plant families. Out of the different species of trees, the most representative genus is the ficus in the family of Moraceae and Hibiscus in the flowering plants,” said Akhilesh.
The digital garden was recently inaugurated by M K Sakeer, chairman of the Kerala Public Service Commission. The trees are given boards with their names and a QR code, which leads you to the website giving information on the tree. “The trees on the campus were identified and named. Even the garden plants have been documented,” adds Akhilesh.The garden has common ficus varieties such as banyan tree, elephant ear fig tree, golden fig, and peepal tree.
There are also hibiscus variety plants like cotton rose, ruby hibiscus and china rose. Other endemic plant varieties include wild jack, cinnamon, kalluvazha (ensete superbum), marotti (hydnocarpus laurifolia) etc. The campus also has eucalyptus trees which are not commonly found in cities.
A butterfly garden was also inaugurated inside the PSC campus as a tribute to poet and activist Sugathakumari. A book on the trees and garden plants of Kerala PSC co-authored by Gangaprasad and Akhilesh was also released on the occasion. About 500 books were distributed to the PSCs across the country.