Can you imagine that plants also have families, but not exactly in the way humans imagine families and hierarchies? Kishore Panwar and Bholeshwar Dube captivate their readers by opening up an intriguing world of plant families, offering glimpses of 17 prominent families. They note that humans have an innate tendency to categorize the world around them and that there are different bases for such categorizations.
The book provides fascinating details about the plant families, almost like a scrapbook with carefully organized information and neatly pasted pictures. For each family, designer Rohit Kokil dedicates two pages, presenting general information about the plant family, its genus, and its various species around the world and in India. The illustrations are stylized, resembling watercolours, and each plant family is highlighted with a specific pastel shade, making exploration of these families visually engaging.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the book is how the authors complement scientific facts with common proverbs or couplets. For example, while discussing Apiaceae, they cite, ‘ऊँट के मुंह में ज़ीरा’, connecting the plants to familiar sayings, which makes them easier to remember.
Readers might have benefitted from a flow chart or clear definitions of family, genus, and species, along with an explanation of their hierarchical placement. Without such guidance, new readers could find the basic concepts confusing. A brief explanation in the Preface could have made the taxonomy easier to follow.
Ped-Paudhon Ke Kunbe can be useful for middle school students, though its language may challenge those who do not have a strong command of complex Hindi vocabulary. Overall, it is informative, visually appealing, and engaging, though it may not fully satisfy readers’ curiosity about the hows and whys of plant classification.
Asfia Jamal lives in Bhopal and is a researcher. She enjoys seeing the world through the lens of her research and nowadays spends her time writing stories and articles.