Wiki Loves Wildflowers

Wiki Loves Wildflowers is a project by Punjabi Wikimedians that focuses on documenting wild flowers of the Punjab region and integrating this information with Wikimedia projects such as Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia and Wikidata. Photographs of the flowers found in wild will be taken and uploaded. Additional information such as a brief description will also be added.

The project was launched on 22 May 2019 which is International Day for Biological Diversity.

Team

Varinder Sharma (Project lead)
Satdeep Gill (Advisor / Volunteer)
Nitesh Gill (Coordinator / volunteer)
Jagseer S Sidhu (Field visit / volunteer)

Methodology

We will document the wildflower species in a holistic sense and create complete profile of the species by adding photographs from different views (such as dorsal view) and different parts of the species (such as buds, fruit, flower etc.). We will also be primarily focusing on documenting species without any images, having less than 20 images or without any quality images on Commons.

This existing category and sub-categories on Commons will be seen as model: Category:Cichorium intybus.

I Phase

Species without images

Capparis_decidua
Zaleya pentandra
Carthamus oxyacantha
Convolvulus prostratus
Dicliptera roxburghiana
Farsetia hamiltonii
Fumaria indica
Gastrocotyle hispida
Garden cress - Images available but not categorized properly
Mukia madaraspetanus
Tamarix articulate
Verbesina elsenioides
Zaleya pentandra

Species with less than 20 images

Species without quality images

Complete List of Plants (123)

Images uploaded under Phase 0

Valued image of Blumea viscosa

Supporting affiliates

Report and Analysis

Wiki Loves Wildlife was an incidental project. Varinder Sharma, a school teacher came in contact with Punjabi Wikimedians. He is of course a school science teacher by profession but he had an amazing knowledge of botany as well as photography. Due to this association, the idea came into existence that why not to document those flowers and flora in Punjab and its adjoining areas which are rare or endangered species. Varinder wanted to do this kind of work earlier too, but due to lack of lenses and necessary equipment and financial help, he is unable to do so. With the help of Punjabi Wikimedians, these gaps were filled and this plan could be carried out through systematic planning.

The project first sought financial assistance from CIS-A2K under a grant to cover the cost of purchasing a macro lens and traveling to various locations to photograph wild flowers. Four field visits were conducted under the plan. Four field visits done under this project:

Morni Hills, Haryana
Andhrata, Himachal Pradesh
Chakrata, Uttarakhand
Hoshiarpur, Punjab

Learnings

Through this project, the attention of the Punjabi community went towards those species which were close to us and their documentation was necessary but we were not paying attention to them.
Many wild flowers with which the Punjabi people were very familiar (by appearance) but did not know their names. These flowers are often found on the banks of canals/rivers or on common needles or drains in villages.
Many seasonal flowers that were around us but we didn't know their names nor any other information about them. This information was obtained through Varinder Sharma.
Among these species, there are many flowers which are gradually disappearing or have become extinct from Punjab due to various reasons. These names have been retained due to this documentation process.
Many of these flowers are also used in medicine or in Ayurveda.
Before this, the efforts of the Punjabi community were more on editing Punjabi Wikipedia and Punjabi Wikisource or the projects that were being drawn up, their focus was also on these two projects. This project was purely a Wikimedia Commons project and it gave the Punjabi community new inspiration and guidance for the future.
There were also some flowers in Punjab which bloom only for a certain time. After time their appearance or existence is not the same. Therefore, we will try from now on to make field visits according to the correct information about the growth and maturity of the flowers.

We also tried to do an offline project through which the entire community would have been informed about the successes and failures of this project, but that could not happen, but soon we will try to do that too.

Gallary

All photos can be traced at this category.