India’s first cryptogamic garden

  •  India’s first cryptogamic garden housing nearly 50 species of lichens, ferns and fungi was inaugurated in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun district. Located in the district’s Chakrata town, the garden was inaugurated by social activist Anoop Nautiyal.
  •  Cryptogamae 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