T. Venkatapathi Reddiar

2.Vezhan Vittighar Award T. Venkatapathi Reddiar is an Indian horticulturist and florist, credited with the development of over 100 varieties of crossandra flowers and casuarinas.

[3] His schooling was broken while he was in grade 4 as he had to assist his family in farming but, taking a fascination for horticulture, he learnt the science through self-education.

Initially he worked on micropropagation of different varieties of flower plants but soon started deploying tissue culture techniques at the laboratory he had set up.

[3] He is also credited with the development of 30 high yielding mutant varieties of Crossandra using gamma radiation, with assistance from the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam.

[1] Venkatapathi Reddiar, holder several patents,[11] was honored by the International Tamil University, Maryland, USA[12] with the degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) in 2011.