A swamp is an area of land that is permanently filled with water. They are often named after the trees that grow in them—Myristica swamps are named after the tree family (Myristicaceae) that is most abundant here.

Across the world, there are two main kinds of swamps: saltwater, which form on tropical coastlines, and freshwater which form inland, around lakes and streams. Swamps are therefore neither completely land nor water, but transition zones between the two.

Myristica swamps are freshwater swamps. It is believed that, at one time, they would have formed a network along the water courses through the primaeval forests of the Western Ghats. Since then, much has been converted for agriculture or irrigation projects, and the remaining swamp land can be found in smaller patches.

It is difficult for plants to grow in water-logged conditions and so they have evolved various adaptations such as aerial roots. In these pictures, and in your book, you can see the stilt roots of the Magnificent nutmeg (Myristica fatua) and the knee roots of the Kanara nutmeg (Gymnacranthera canarica). Such roots provide additional support to the plant, while also allowing the roots to breathe.

The Myristica swamps have a great number of endemic species, both flora and fauna. The lion-tailed macaque, the Myristica sapphire damselfly, several fish and amphibians are only found in this habitat. Swamps are also especially important for environmental stability. During times of heavy rain, they naturally help to control floods by storing excess water. Additionally, in swampy areas, water is able to slowly seep into the soil, thereby replenishing our groundwater supply. The loss of swamp lands contribute to flooding and soil erosion.

Historically, pepper has been one of the most sought after spices in the world largely due to its medicinal properties. Just how sought after, you ask? In Europe in the Middle Ages, it was an incentive for Vasco da Gama and the Portuguese to seek a sea route to India! It was sometimes used as a sort of currency due to its high value, compact size, and durability. Think about it: those are the same properties we value in money.

Black, white and green pepper are all produced from Piper nigrum fruits, but are harvested at different times and processed differently. Betel leaf (Piper betel) is also from the same genus, and a number of other wild species are also called pepper locally, and used in a similar manner. For example, Indian long pepper (Piper longum), is native to the region from Assam to Myanmar. Sichuan pepper, often used in Asian cooking, is obtained from Zanthoxylum species. In South America, Pink pepper is obtained from the Brazilian pepper tree (Schinus terebinthifolius).

Ficus is a genus of around 850 species of trees, shrubs and vines collectively called ‘figs’. They are found natively throughout the tropics, and include some of our most beloved Indian trees such as the peepal (Ficus religiosa) and the banyan (Ficus benghalensis). It also includes the fig fruit that humans love to eat—Ficus carica, native to the Middle East and Western Asia. In your book, you can see the cluster fig tree (Ficus racemosa), whose most distinctive feature is that its fruit grow abundantly in clusters directly from the tree’s trunk.

Fig trees form a very important part of jungle ecosystems because they fruit multiple times a year, which means that some kind of fig fruit should be available all year round—even in seasons when most other trees aren’t in fruit. So many birds, bats and primates rely on fig fruit for their sustenance that they are known as a ‘keystone’ resource in the jungle. Like the keystone of a bridge, if figs disappear, all else could come crashing down!

Figs are also fascinating for their complex pollination strategy. Interestingly, fig flowers are located inside the fig fruit, known as a ‘syconium’. In order to access these flowers, the pollinator has to enter the fruit through a tiny hole called an ‘ostiole’. Figs have therefore evolved a special relationship with fig wasps: the mother wasp lays her eggs safely among the fig flowers inside the syconium. When the baby wasps are born, the males dig little escape tunnels in the fruit wall for the females. The males then die and dissolve within the fruit! Meanwhile, the female wasps, carrying the fig’s pollen with them, fly off to other syconia in search of a place to lay their eggs—thereby completing the pollination cycle. This relationship began more than 80 million years ago, and now nearly every species of fig has its own partner wasp species! In fact, Ficus species likely produce fruit all year round in order to ensure its pollinator wasps survive.

The term ‘strangler fig’ is applied to a particular growth pattern displayed by many species of the Ficus genus. They are found natively throughout the tropics and include some of our most beloved Indian trees such as the peepal (Ficus religiosa) and the banyan (Ficus benghalensis)—both of which display strangling behaviour.

What in a whodunnit-murder-mystery is that? Well, it is essentially a growth method developed to get a leg up on the competition. The rainforest floor can be a difficult place for young seedlings to develop, as very little light filters down through thick overhead canopies. There is also a great deal of competition for water and nutrients with other plants. So unlike most other plants, strangler figs start their lives off as epiphytes on the branches of another fully grown tree. Their seeds are usually dispersed by birds, who drop them atop an existing tree, from where the fig begins to germinate.

First, the strangler sends out many thin roots that crawl down the trunk of the host tree toward the ground, or dangle as aerial roots. Eventually, these roots hit the ground, dig in, and begin to compete with the host tree for resources. As the roots grow, they thicken and form a lattice around the trunk of the host, while putting out a thick canopy of leaves that overshadow the host, robbing it of sunlight. Eventually, the host dies due to loss of sunlight and competition for nutrients, and the strangler stands on its own as a hollow cylinder of roots.

Despite their deadly reputation, stranglers are important members of rainforest ecosystems. Besides providing fruit for many species, their hollowed-out trunks provide homes for many rodents, invertebrates, bats, birds, reptiles and amphibians.

Species belonging to the genus Aglaomorpha are commonly called ‘basket ferns’. They are either epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants without being parasites) or lithophytes (plants that grow on rocks). The oakleaf fern is a particular kind of epiphytic basket fern. Basket ferns are characterised by two kinds of leaves: short, sterile ‘nest’ leaves and long ‘foliage’ leaves. The nest leaves start off green, but eventually turn brown and die—but rather than shed them, the plant keeps them on in the form of a sort of basket at the plant’s base. This basket is used to collect litter and organic debris—falling leaves, flowers, twigs, animal droppings and more—which decompose into humus, providing the plants with nutrients they would otherwise not have received from being suspended above ground. They are plants that make their own compost, thereby giving themselves access to a private supply of nutrients! They also host a whole lot of other organisms in their baskets. Some of these inhabitants aid the plant by accelerating decomposition, but others compete for nutrients with the host plant. Oakleaf ferns are so called because their nest leaves resemble the leaves of an oak tree.

‘Sundew’ is the common name for the genus Drosera, one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants in the world. There are three species of sundews in the Western Ghats, all of which are pictured here.

Sundews are usually found in bogs, sandy banks or other mineral soils that are low in organic nitrogen and phosphorous content. They compensate for the lack of nutrients they would otherwise derive from the soil by trapping and ingesting insects—fungus gnats, ants, crickets, spiders, bloodworms, fruit flies and more. Sundews are equipped with muciliginous glands which secrete a kind of glue that captures insects that venture near. This glue resembles drops of dew, from where the plants get their name.

As the trapped insect struggles, it is covered in sticky mucilage and suffocates to death. The sundew then secretes a second kind of enzyme with which it digests the insect and extracts its nutrients.

The tuber or ‘corm’ of the elephant foot yam is cooked and eaten across India. Meanwhile, its inflorescence displays a captivating strategy to attract its main pollinators: dung beetles, which like to feed on and lay their eggs in decaying and rotting matter. The inflorescence therefore mimics such rotting matter: first visually, with its purplish brownish colour and secondly, by emitting a strong, rotting meat smell. The flowers bloom only for about five days, and their odour is strongest at night. Interestingly, they also produce an intense heat of 30–45° C. The beetles soon realise the deception and move on, but the flower’s work is done. The beetles move onto the next flower, carrying pollen with them.

The genus Strobilanthes has a number of species whose flowering cycles range from one to 16 years! Of these, the Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana), which blooms once every 12 years, is probably the best known. While the drawing in your books features the Neelakurinji, the photograph here shows a related species, the Mal karvy (Strobilanthes sessilis var. Ritche), which flowers every seven years.

Plants like these that bloom after a long interval are called ‘plietesials’. Plietesial plants grow for a number of years, flower ‘gregariously’ (in unison), set seed and then die. Since such plants have only one chance to reproduce, they invest all their resources into this single event. When these plants flower in unison, they cover entire hillsides in carpets of blue, attracting pollinators like the Indian Honeybee to the feast. This way, they overwhelm any form of competition, ensuring that the pollinators only see Strobilanthes for miles round!

It is suggested that the Neelakurinji gave the Nilgiris (the ‘Blue Mountains’) their name. They are of great cultural value to people of the area, who are even known to calculate their ages by flowering cycles.