K.A. Sujana, Senior Scientist of Southern Regional Centre of Botanical Survey of India (BSI) has bagged the prestigious Prof. Y.S. Murty Memorial Gold Medal 2021 for her significant contributions in plant morphology and taxonomy.
The award, instituted by the Indian Botanical Society for the outstanding contributions of botanists in the country in plant morphology and taxonomy, carries a gold medal and a citation.
The works of Dr. Sujana have made deeper understanding about the taxonomic and ecological aspects of flowering plants especially in endemic trees and lianas of India.
She took the taxonomic studies of woody climbing plants of Western Ghats and contributed to National Flora (Volume 11), State Floras – Kerala (Volume 4) and Tamil Nadu (Volume 2), Flora of Balasore district of Odisha and Flora of Kanyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary.
Apart from this , Dr. Sujana has a commendable expertise on Rare, Endemic and Threatened (RET) arboreal plants of India and also documented traditional uses of these plants.
She had discovered and described 19 plant species that are new to science and also reported range extension of 23 plant species to different phytogeographical zones in India.
Earlier she was attached to M.S. Swami Nathan Research Foundation here and Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi.
The award will be presented to her at the 44th All India Botanical Conference to be held at J.N. Vyas University Auditorium in Jodhpur in Rajasthan from October 18 to October 22.
