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For Pichan M Salim, the forest is not simply a place to explore. It is a classroom, a library and a living laboratory.
The Wayanad-based field parataxonomist has spent decades identifying, documenting and conserving plants of the Western Ghats. Without following the conventional route of advanced academic degrees, Salim has built a reputation among researchers through his extraordinary knowledge of plant species and their habitats.
His work has contributed to new plant discoveries, rare geographical records, scientific publications and the preservation of native genetic diversity.
Salimโs journey began in 1997, when he was among 20 local youths selected for a parataxonomy training programme conducted by the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation in Wayanad.
He joined MSSRF the following year and began working on agro-biodiversity conservation. Over time, he developed the ability to identify more than 2,000 botanical names and assisted researchers studying plants across the Western Ghats.
MSSRF describes him as a field botanist who has systematically documented flowering plants in the region for more than two decades. An earlier MSSRF profile credited him with helping discover eight new species and recording several new plant records.
More recent reporting has placed his contribution at 23 new plant species, more than 10 new geographical records and over 53 scientific publications.
Salim received the Plant Genome Saviour Award for 2020-21, presented by President Droupadi Murmu in September 2023.
For his many contributions, he has also received state-level recognition, including the Kerala State Biodiversity Board Award and the Vanamithra Award.
Salimโs contribution has also been recognised in botanical nomenclature.
The orchid Seidenfadeniella salimii, first described from Keralaโs Western Ghats, was named in his honour. The original scientific paper acknowledged Salim for collecting specimens and contributing to plant taxonomy. The species is now treated in Kewโs Plants of the World Online under the accepted name Cleisostomopsis salimii.
Another species, Impatiens salimii, is also named after him and is accepted as a plant native to Kerala, according to Kew records.
For Salim, these names are not merely personal recognition. They represent the role of field knowledge in helping scientists understand biodiversity that may otherwise remain undocumented.
One of Salimโs most notable recent contributions came through the rediscovery of Campbellia aurantiaca, a rare flowering parasitic plant that had not been credibly recorded for more than 175 years.
The plant was found in the Thollayiram region of Wayanad by a team involving Salim and researchers from India and Sri Lanka. It had originally been documented by Scottish botanist Robert Wight near Naduvattom in Tamil Nadu in 1849.
For years, the plantโs identity had been confused with another species, Christisonia bicolor. The research team resolved the taxonomic confusion, and the findings were published in the Kew Bulletin in December 2025. MSSRF described the plant as a root parasite that depends entirely on a host plant for its nutritional needs.
In August 2025, Salim was also among the researchers who described a new native tuber species, Dioscorea balakrishnanii, from the southern Western Ghats.
The species was named in honour of V Balakrishnan for his contribution to biodiversity documentation and conservation. The research, published in the journal Species, recorded the plantโs distinctive characteristics and explained its importance to the conservation of wild tuber diversity.
Salimโs conservation work extends beyond forest surveys. At his homestead in Athimoola, Wayanad, he has developed an in-situ and ex-situ bio-conservatory.
The collection reportedly includes 614 traditional and wild plant varieties, including wild ornamentals, wild relatives, rare and threatened species, and cultivated genetic diversity variants. Among them are plants such as Bulbophyllum aureum and Medinilla malabarica.
His story is a reminder that scientific knowledge does not always begin in a laboratory or university. Sometimes, it grows through years of walking forest trails, listening to local communities and learning to recognise what others might overlook.
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