Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2019 | 11(9): 14224–14227

 

 

Extended distribution of the vulnerable Cooper’s Stone Flower Corallodiscus cooperi (Gesneriaceae) in India

 

Vikas Kumar 1, Samiran Panday 2, Sudhansu Sekhar Dash 3, Bipin Kumar Sinha 4 & Paramjit Singh 5

 

1,2 Central National Herbarium, Botanical Survey of India, Howrah, West Bengal 711103, India.

3,4,5 Botanical Survey of India, CGO Complex, Sector 1, Salt Lake, Kolkata, West Bengal 700064, India.

1 vmadhukar7@gmail.com, 2 samicnh@gmail.com, 3 ssdash2002@yahoo.co.in (corresponding author), 4 drbks2004@gmail.com, 5 pchanna@gmail.com

 

 

 

doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4707.11.9.14224-14227  

 

Editor: Anonymity requested.              Date of publication: 26 July 2019 (online & print)

 

Manuscript details: #4707 | Received 18 November 2018 | Final received 26 June 2019 | Finally accepted 30 June 2019

 

Citation: Kumar, V., S. Panday, S.S. Dash, B.K. Sinha & P. Singh (2019). Extended distribution of the vulnerable Cooper’s Stone Flower Corallodiscus cooperi (Gesneriaceae) in India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(9): 14224–14227. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4707.11.9.14224-14227

 

Copyright: © Kumar et al. 2019. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.  JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

 

Funding: MOEF&CC, New Delhi.

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to Dr M. Möller, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK, for his valuable comments on the identity of the species, to Mr Santanu Dey, Nagaland University, for providing relevant literature, to Dr D.J. Middleton, Singapore Botanic Gardens, for suggestions, and to the forest department, Arunachal Pradesh, for giving permission for the fieldwork.  We are also thankful to the Director, Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Kolkata, and to the Head Central National Herbarium (BSI), Howrah, for facilities and encouragement.  The authors extend their sincere thanks to MOEF&CC, New Delhi, for financial assistance (File no. NMHS/2015-16/LG-05) provided through the NMHS programme.

 

 

 

C.B. Clarke (1883) first established the genus Didissandra under the tribe Cyrtandreae.  While describing the genus, he mentioned seven species under four sections, of which six belonged to the Malayan region and one (i.e., D. lanuginosa) to the Himalayan region (Shimla, Kumaun, Garhwal, Sikkim, and Khasia Hills in India, Bhutan, and China).  Batalin (1892) established the genus Corallodiscus based on a specimen C. conchaefolius collected from China.  Craib (1919a,b), while dealing with Didissandra and its allied genera in the context of India and China, recorded 16 species under the genus.  According to Burtt (1947), however, the species mentioned under Didissandra by Craib (1919b) shows affinity with Corallodiscus, and hence he transferred all of Craib’s species to Corallodiscus.  Currently, most of the species have been synonymized (Wang et al. 1990, 1998; Gao et al. 2012) and the genus is characterized by six species, namely C. bhutanicus (Craib) B.L. Burtt, C. cooperi (Craib) B.L. Burtt, C. conchifolius Batalin, C. grandis (Craib) B.L. Burtt, C. kingianus (Craib) B.L. Burtt, and C. lanuginosus (Wall. ex DC.) B.L. Burtt (The Plant List 2013).  According to Mabberley (2018), this genus comprises 3–5 species, distributed from the Himalaya to northwestern China and southeastern Asia.  So far, only C. kingianus and C. lanuginosus have been reported from India.

During our floristic and ecological study in Tawang District of Arunachal Pradesh under the project titled ‘Biodiversity Assessment through Long-term Monitoring Plots in Indian Himalayan Landscape’, we collected an interesting species belonging to Corallodiscus.  Upon critical analysis and scrutiny of authentic literature (Ridley 1905; Craib 1919a,b; Wang et al. 1998; Hilliard 2001; Kamble et al. 2006; Giri et al. 2008; Rout et al. 2008; Möller et al. 2017) and study of herbarium material form from Botanical Survey of India, Arunachal Pradesh Regional Centre, Itanagar (ARUN), Botanical Survey of India, Eastern Regional Centre, Shillong (ASSAM), Central National Herbarium, Howrah (CAL), and Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (E), the identity of the species was confirmed as Corallodiscus cooperi (Craib) B.L. Burtt., hitherto not reported from India.  According to IUCN (2017) criteria, the species is listed under the Vulnerable category and was previously only reported from Bhutan.  Therefore, the collection of this species from Zemithang establishes its extended distribution and occurrence in India.  A detailed description of this newly recorded species along with field images, locality map (Fig. 1), and notes are provided herewith to facilitate its easy identification.

 

Material and Methods

Flowering specimens of the species were collected from Zemithang Valley in August 2017.  The floral parts were dissected and observed under the light microscope (Olympus SZ61) for detailed macro- and micromorphology.  Images were taken in the field with a Sony DSC-HX60V camera.  Colour photoplates were made using Adobe Photoshop CS3 and the locality map using Arc Map (ver. 10.1).

 

Corallodiscus cooperi (Craib) B.L. Burtt.

in Gard. Chron. III, 122: 212. 1947; Hilliards in A.J.C. Grierson & D.G. Long (Eds.) Flora of Bhutan, 2(3): 1322. 2001.  Type: Bhutan, Dotena Timphu, 8000ft, Cooper 2508/a (E-image!) (Image 1).

Didissandra cooperi Craib in Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 11: 241–242. 1919.

Small, acaulescent, rosettiform, stoloniferous, lithophytic herb.  Rhizome usually grows above ground.  Leaves radical, rosette, erect or suberect, smooth; petiole 1.2–1.5 cm long, woolly; lamina narrowly elliptic to oblong or subspathulate, (1.5) 5–8 cm × 3.0–3.5 cm, narrowly cuneate at base, gradually tapering to an elongated petiole, entire at margin, acute to obtuse at apex; lateral veins 2–3 pairs, thick, faint on upper surface, prominent on lower surface; adaxially glabrous, glaucous, slightly woolly along veins at abaxial surface.  Flower axillary, solitary, 1.6–2.0 cm long, purplish-white; pedicel, 6.5–8.0 cm long, cylindrical, usually drooping at apex in bud, purplish-brown, woolly at base, glabrescent towards apex.  Calyx bell-shaped, segments equal in size, connate at base, sepals 5, imbricate, ovate, 2–3 mm × 1.0–1.5 mm, apex acute and minutely recurved, brown, margin entire.  Corolla tubular, ca. 7.5mm long, bilipped, purplish; inside with two rows of yellow spots, outer surface glabrous, inner surface  woolly; upper lip 2-lobed, ca. 4mm long, suborbicular, obtuse at apex; lower lip 3-lobed, ca. 5mm × 4mm, obovate to sub-orbicular.  Stamens 4, didynamous, epipetalous, longer stamens 8–9 mm long, shorter ones 5–6 mm long; anthers dorsifixed, each pair of anther connate at apex, white; staminode 1.  Carpels ca. 5mm × 1mm, glabrous; ovary ca. 2mm long, unilocular; style ca. 3mm long, slender; stigma bilobed.

Flowering: August–September.

Habitat and ecology: Grows on slopes, in rocky crevices, and on moss-covered boulders at an altitude of ca. 1,900–2,000 m.  Three populations with ca. 35 mature individuals were observed along a 1km-long trail during our field visit of which, two specimens (same field no.) were collected for herbarium.  The associated species were Lycopodium japonicum Thunb., Selaginela monospora Spring., Cyanotis vaga Schult. & Schult.f., and Nephrolepis cordifolia (L.) C. Presl.

Distribution: India (Arunachal Pradesh) and Bhutan.

Status: Vulnerable (IUCN 2017).

Specimen examined: 87268 (CAL!), 14.viii.2017, Arunachal Pradesh, Tawang District, Zemithang Valley, 27.7060N & 91.7240E, 2,075m, coll. V. Kumar & S. Panday.

Notes: Though Corallodiscus cooperi is allied to C. lanuginosus, it differs from it in having a stoloniferous habit, smooth leaf blades, glabrous and glaucous upper leaf surface, faint and inconspicuous veins, and inflorescence with solitary flower.  It also shows similarities with C. bhutanicus and C. conchifolius in habit, but differs from C. bhutanicus in having narrowly elliptic-oblong to subspatulate leaves and smaller size of calyx and from C. conchifolius by the presence of leaves having an entire margin, sparsely woolly hairs restricted to the veins on abaxial surface, and small size of calyx (ca. 2mm long).

 

 

Key to the species of Corallodiscus in India

 

1a.       Flowers solitary; peduncles, pedicels and calyx persistently woolly .............… C. kingianus

1b.       Flowers 1–many; peduncles, pedicels and calyx glabrous or glabrescent .................... 2

2a.       Plant stoloniferous; leaf glabrous adaxially, 2–3 pairs of lateral veins, faint on adaxial surface; margin entire; cyme 1-flowered  .......................... C. cooperi

2b.       Plant not stoloniferous; leaf usually hairy adaxially, 3–5 pairs of lateral veins, prominent on adaxial surface; margin entire or subcrenate; cymes 1–many flowered  .......................... C. lanuginosus

 

 

For figure & image – click here

 

References

 

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Burtt, B.L. (1947). Didissandra and Corallodiscus. Gardeners’ Chronicle 3(122): 204, 212.

Clarke, C.B. (1883). Cyrtandreae (Gesneracearum tribus), pp1-303. In: A. De Candolle et C. De Candolle (eds.). Monographiae Phanerogamarum, Vol. 5. Parisiis: Sumptibus G. Masson, Via ditca Boulevard Saint-Germain 120, 654pp.

Craib, W.G. (1919a). Gesneracearum novitates. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 11: 233–254.

Craib, W.G. (1919b). Didissandra and allied genera in China and N. India. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 11: 255–268.

Gao, L.M., Z.R. Zhang, P. Zhou, M. Möller & D.Z. Li (2012). Microsatellite markers developed for Corallodiscus lanuginosus (Gesneriaceae) and their cross-species transferability. American Journal of Botany 99(12): e490–e492.

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