Flora & Fauna — mythology and science
“To the solid ground of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.”
Girls are often named as Flora but boys seldom have the pleasure of such name. Do you know a few stalwarts women having first name Flora? Flora Carabella (Italian actress), Flora Chan (Hong Kong actress), Flora Eldershaw (Australian writer), Flora MacDonald (Canadian Politician), Flora Montgomery (British actress), Flora Robson (British actress) etc are some of the names can be recalled here. ‘Flora’ is one of the three good fairies in the 1959 Disney animated film sleeping Beauty. In the TV series, Thomas and Friends, Flora was a fictional character. But use of fauna as a name for individual is very rare. But Flora and fauna are used in biological domain. Let us first explore the reason behind the mythology of the uses of the name and then try to assess the use of the beauty of the two words in the scientific field. ‘Flora’ comes from the Latin name of Flora”, the goddess of plants, flower and fertility in Roman mythology. Titus Tatius is said to have introduced the cult of Flora to Rome. Her temple stood near Circus Maximus. The ‘Floralia’ festival started in 238 B.C. Her name is now being widely used in the domain of plant science to indicate the vegetation of a particular locality. It has been derived from the metonymy of the goddess in the sixteenth century. It is also treated as the season of spring. So, Flora is an embodiment of all nature and her name represent all plant life. In ancient time, rituals and celebrations were performed as a mark of honor to her (Flora).But later on, this celebrations came to an end by the courtesy of sexual promiscuity and paganism. With the passage of time, the image of Flora was revitalized in the middle of 18th century since after the beginning of explorations and expeditions leading to the urge to acquire knowledge about plants as a part of the enlightenment science. The 18th century tried to make an association in myth and literature between women, flowers and gardens. The true scientific approach to explore and identify the plaints got a new momentum by C. Linnaeus –the father of Botany and as a pioneer in plant taxonomy, Linnaeus classified plants according to sexual feature along with the adhesion and cohesion of the sex organs giving priority of the dominance of male features. Out of the 24 classes, (Monandria — — Decandria — -Polydelphia etc) most of it speaks about stamens, an active part in plant reproduction and female part, carpel as passive one. The Linnaeus’s work was unchallenged for a long period of time and it was Lindley who opposed the Linnaeus and his approach. But still, the flora symbolizes the female counterpart but why? The study of gender and gender relations is an important field of modern days and this relation are socially & historically specific. The relations are subjected to change according to age, religion, ethnicity, caste, class within a particular society. The division of labor varies according to sex. Rights, duties, and freedoms and along with the obligations of every kind also change according to sex. The benefits, opportunities and challenges also vary according to so far biological point of view. The unquestioned assumptions of male predominance even exist in the scientific domain of research and development. But at the age of automation and AI driven knowledge based society, why flora and plants become synonymous? Women as housewife sustain an intimate relationship with plants-whether the selection of food items, culinary traditions or food as a symbol of hospitality, emotional, ritualistic, spiritual and medicinal values. Even food storage and preservation skills of seed as propagules are also subjected to the management and conservation by female in most of the societies. “Man the hunter” and “Women the gatherer” are as old conception since the time immemorial. Women also as home gardener rear thousands of plants as a supplement to agricultural production. This in situ type of conservation makes the avenue of evolution. Women are the real stakeholders of indigenous traditional knowledge of plants in general and herbals in particular for the sake of child cares and family health. Women are also the plant breeders and the true custodian of the plant propagates. Women’s responsibilities in the selection of plants along with post harvest outlook for multiple visions have been acknowledged by the civil society. Women are the real stakeholders of the plants genetic resources. It has been observed in different studies as far as collection of seeds from mother’s localities to daughter instead of mother-in- laws localities Even today, Women still constitute the majority gathers, gardeners, herbalists and plant breeders. Women play a leading role in plant biodiversity conservation and Ethnobotanical domain. Rachel Carson, Vandana Shiva, Wangari Maathai, Greta Thunberg, Jane Goodall, Sunita Narain, Amrita Patel are some of the well known faces in the field of environment and conservation. Science and research related to plant attributes enough importance to man and women and for the work in local level. Women have no substitute to promote this herculean task. Might be, these are some of the reasons as women deserved the name Flora as like as the entire plant groups. This is the high time to all the floras to come forward to adorn the name ‘Flora’ in true sense.
As far as ‘Fauna’ is concerned, it also comes from the name of the Roman goddess of earth and fertility, Faunus. It is also related to forest’s spirits, Fauns. It basically indicates a collection of animals found in particular geographical areas. The term was first used by the father of Botany and binomial nomenclature of living world, Carolus Linnaeus in his book entitled ‘Fauna Suecica’ in the year 1745. A number of prefixes are used to describe the fauna of the different geographical areas. Cryofauna (animal of Cold area), Cryptofauna (microhabitat), Epifauna (benthic zone), Limnofauna (Fresh water), Macrofauna (Soil organisms), Megafauna (Large animals), Mesofauna (arthropods), Stygofauna (ground water), Troglofauna (Cave living), Xenofauna (alien like) are some of the different type of animals widely distributed under different habitats. Out of 8.7 eukaryotic species on the earth, only 1.3 million or more species have a window with us and the rest needs wider openings for their vivid exploration.
‘Flora’ sounds like ‘flower’, a part of the plant while ‘Fauna’ sounds like ‘fawn’, -a part of the animal kingdom. Both Flora and Fauna bears a rich heritage as far as mythology is concerned but the magic of realty speaks a lot of the rich biodiversity heritage of plants and animals of this blue planet.
“The real friendship like fluorescence, it shines better when everything is darkened” (Tagore). Let us make a strong bonding with Flora and Fauns to have the fluorescence of love even in the last ‘Lub dub’.
