Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 30 (UNI) For nature enthusiasts the concept of digital flora and garden brings a new experience and through the digitisation of Kanakakkunnu Palace flora, visitors at this heritage monument can easily access the plant taxonamy on smartphone.

A study was carried out by Akhilesh S V Nair, a PG student, and Dr. A Gangaprasad from Department of Botany, University of Kerala, Karyavattom campus; which involves the documentation and digitisation of tree and garden plant species of Kanakakkunnu Palace premise including the Nishagandhi and Sooryakanthi grounds.

All the eighty eight species of trees located in the palace premises were documented. The documented data were digitised through website creation, QR code linking and Android App creation.

"By digitising the information of the plants in the palace premises, visitors can learn more about the biological diversity. With this, Kanakakkunnu premises becomes the first public place in the country to have Digital flora", Akhilesh said.

The concept of Digital Flora and Garden is new to Plant taxonomy. Linking plant taxonomy with Digital Technology is one of the promising field having immense applications, he opined.

In his blog https://asvnairflora.blogspot.com/ each plant species were recorded with unique URL. Unique QR code is provied for each plant species and the laminated code is attached to each plant. An Android App also developed for this purpose.

Through this study, most of the major trees of the palace premises is labeled. QR code developed for each specific plant was tied on the tree with the plant label. On scaning the QR code using code scanner through smart phones, the specific plant details will be displayed on the smart phone. The data includes photos, uses, flowering period, distribution, nativity, botanical characteristics etc.

The Kanakakkunnu Palace located in 21 acres of land, is listed as a heritage monument by Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city and now it is a unique model of conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem management.

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