Gopinath Panigrahi is a botanist and plant taxonomist. He was born in the village Baikunthapur, Basudebpur block, Bhadrak district, Orissa, India and obtained a Ph.D. in 1954 from the University of Leeds where he studied Cytogenetics. He married his late first wife, Shantilata Panigrahi in June, 1948. She was an accomplished amateur dancer in Kathakali-Odissi systems of dancing, and a Government of Orissa scholar at Shantiniketan. They had four children. His second wife, 'Sarojini G. Panigrahi died when he was seventy. She had received a M.Phil degree from Reading University and was a poet in Marathi literature. His first son, Devananda, was a poultry scientist and died on 23 December 2004. His eldest daughter, Meera, is a retired Senior Lecturer in English Literature under the Government of Orissa. His second daughter, Smt. Soumya Panda, is a teacher.
Joint Director, Central Botanical Laboratory, from July 1978 to February 1982.
Deputy Director, Special/Headquarters, Botanical Survey of India, Howrah, from January 1976 to June 1977; of Central National Herbarium, Howrah, from June 1977 to July 1978.
Established Tragus roxburghii Panigr. as a new species in 1974 to replace T. biflorus Schult., nom. illeg..
Established a new family Tectariaceae to replace Aspiciaceae Mett. et Frank, nom. illeg. and two new genera, Brachycaulos Dixit and Panigr. and Parahemionitis – Parahemionitis arifolia Panigr. replaces the old World taxon, Hemionitis arifolia T. Moore.
Selected the lectotypes for several taxa: the one involving Gymnogramma calomelanos var. aureoflava Hook, changed the concept of pteridologists all the world over.
His selection of Faure 646-bis as the lectotype of Aspidium jaculosum Christ in 1975, was accepted by Holttum.
Revised Isoetes L. in India ; Isoetes bilaspurensis Panigr. has been confirmed as a good species by Pant et al. through their SEM study of spores.
Resuscitated Polypodium griffithii Fee and transferred it to Thelypteris Schmidel as T. griffithiana Panigr..
Identified the West Himalayan taxon known to date as Diplazium polypodioides auctt. as Diplazium fieldingianum Panigr..
His hybridisation of a number of cytological types within Cyclosorus parasiticus complex, Asplenium aethiopicum complex, Aleuritipteris farinosa complex and Dryopteris villarii complex, yielded significant new data to view the taxonomy of these taxa in new light and also to postulate the origin and migration of flora between Africa and India. 'Holttum, Iwatsuki and A.R. Smith have referred to the work done on Cyclosorus as significant with regard to dominance and recessiveness of several characters. Discovery of a tetraploid cytotype in Dryopteris villarsii complex has led to Dryopteris submontana Fraser-Jenkins being described as a new amphidiploid species in the European flora.
Cytotaxonomic studies in Indian Polypodiaceae have enabled him to postulate a hypothesis to explain the low percentage and grade of euploidy as due to its epiphytic habit, contrary to Manton's and Mehra's postulate on the subject of evolutionary trends amongst the tropical/subtropical ferns. Bir and Sota have referred to this hypothesis in their critical reviews of recent advances in the cytological evolution of ferns.
Professional societies
Elected President, Orissa Botanical Society, Bhubaneswar, in 1983, and delivered an address entitled, 'Macrosystematics of Angiosperms', in November 1983;
Elected President, Indian Fern Society, Patiala, for two years of 1993 and 1994;
Elected as a member of the Sectional Committee of the Botany Section, Indian Science Congress at Roorkee in 1961, and again at Mysore, in 1982;
A Life Member of the Systematic Association, British Isles, UK; of the International Association of Plant Taxonomists, Netherlands; of the Indian Botanical Society; of the International Society of Plant Morphologists, of the Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, of the Botanical societies of Orissa, West Bengal, and Bangladesh, amongst others;
Awards and distinctions
The Indian Botanical Society, founded in 1920, awarded him on 21 October 1994, the Panchanan Maheshwari Gold Medal for his researches in diverse fields of Botanical Science.
The Indian Botanical Society also felicitated him on his attaining 70 years of age at Chandigarh on 21 October 1994 and in instituting a Commemoration Lecture Series known as Dr Gopinath Panigrahi Lectures to be delivered by distinguished botanists of India, on invitation, from time to time.
He is the founder of the Computer-data Bank Unit in the Botanical Survey of India, and has initiated work involving the preparation of the Type Specimens Register of Indian plant taxa.
Delivered the keynote address in the 8th Biennial Botanical Conference held in Dhaka in December 1994, and his talk on 'Economic Plants excluding medicinal plants' ;
Research publications
He has published more than three-hundred scientific papers between 1951 and 1995 and authored or co-authored four multi-volume works.
Flora of Bilaspur District, M.P. in two volumes with Dr S.K. Murti as a joint author.
The family Rosaceae Juss. in India, sensu lato:. Vol. 1 with Dr K.M. Purohit as a joint author and Vols. 2, 3, and 4 with Chhabi Ghora, Arvind Kumar and B.K. Dikshit, respectively, as joint authors
Pteridophytic flora of the Tirap District, Arunachal Pradesh: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, with Sarnam Singh as a coauthor
Flora of Orissa :
He acted as the botanical editor of the Flora of the USSR Vol. 25, Vols. 22 and 30, and Vol. 26 .
