Bamboo rhizome

     It is a graceful gigantic grass, popularly and collectivelly known as 'Bamboo'. It is a monocotyledon member belonging to the family 'Poaceae'. The crooked and knotty culms render it as a second class bamboo, used mainly for floating heavy timber and for structural purposes and also yields good quality paperpulp. The marvellous, clustered, compacted, bunched, underground rhizome is kept in the Systematic Botany Gallery.    

      Kurinchipattu is the early Tamil Sangam literature written by the great poet Kabilar. In this literature ninety-nine plants are mentioned. The following plants are exhibited as herbarium in the Kurinchippattu show-case under the Systematic Botany Gallery.

Ipomoea pes-caprae
Atumpu

    A common plant near the sea, belongs to the family 'Convolvulaceae'. It has thick, fleshy, taproot system with  many succulent red branches, bearing bi-lobed leaves on the long petioles and has beautiful rosy purple flowers. It is mentioned in Sangam literature as
'Atumpu'. It serves as a sand-binder of sea shores along the barren land. Medically it is used to cure swellings.

Lablab purpurescens
    Lablab Bean

      Mentioned by Kabilar in Kurunchippattu as 'Atumpar', 'Aati', 'Nedunkodi', 'Avarai'. It grows as a long creeper with white coloured flowers, belonging to the family 'Fabaceae'. India is considered to be its place of origin and is one of the most ancient among the cultivated plants. It is grown in garden as food plants.