Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2021 | 13(7): 18953–18955
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5888.13.7.18953-18955
#5888 | Received 22 March 2020 | Final
received 17 March 2021 | Finally accepted 22 May 2021
Rediscovery of Ophiorrhiza incarnata C.E.C.
Fisch. (Rubiaceae) from the Western Ghats of
India after a lapse of 83 years
Perumal Murugan
1, Vellingiri Ravichandran 2 &
Chidambaram Murugan 3
1–3 Botanical Survey of India,
Southern Regional Centre, TNAU Campus, Lawley Road Post, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
641003, India.
1 murulax@gmail.com, 2 ravichandran725@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 3 sivanthimurugan@rediffmail.com
Editor: Anonymity requested. Date
of publication: 26 June 2021 (online & print)
Citation: Murugan,
P., V. Ravichandran & C. Murugan (2021). Rediscovery of Ophiorrhiza incarnata C.E.C.
Fisch. (Rubiaceae) from the Western Ghats of
India after a lapse of 83 years. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(7): 18953–18955. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5888.13.7.18953-18955
Copyright: © Murugan
et al. 2021. Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The authors express their sincere
gratitude to Dr. A.A. Mao, director, Botanical Survey
of India, Kolkata and Dr. M.U. Sharief,
head of office, Southern Regional Centre, Coimbatore for providing facilities
and encouragement. The authors are
thankful to Kerala Forest Department for granting permission to explore the
forests.
Ophiorrhiza L. a therapeutically important
genus (Deb & Mondal 1997) belongs to the family Rubiaceae
with 322 species in worldwide (POWO 2020).
The distribution and diversity of the genus Ophiorrhiza
is mainly recorded from tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Australia,
New Guinea, and the Pacific Islands (Darwin 1976; Chen & Taylor 2011; Duan et al. 2019).
Among these, 52 taxa are found in India (Hareesh
& Sabu 2018) and 21 taxa (including 12 endemics) are distributed in the
evergreen forests of the Western Ghats (Deb & Mondal 1997; Sasidharan 2013; Nayar et al.
2014; Hareesh et al. 2015).
During the studies on endemic
plants of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve the authors
collected an interesting species of Ophiorrhiza
L. from the evergreen forest of Chandanathode,
Wayanad District of Kerala. On the basis
of critical studies based on pertinent literature (Fischer 1938, protologue;
Deb & Mondal 1997) and type specimen at K (K000031234 image!), it is
authenticated and confirmed to be Ophiorrhiza
incarnata C.E.C.Fisch.
Ophiorrhiza incarnata C.E.C. Fisch.
(Image 1)
Kew Bull. 1983(3): 124. 1938; Sebastine in Bull. Bot. Surv.
India 4:223.1962; Deb & Mondal in Nayar &
Sastry Red Data Ind. Pl. 1:337. 1987 & Bull. Bot. Surv.
India 39:61.1997; Sasidharan, Bio. Doc. Kerala, Part
6. Flow. Plants: 227. 2004; Nayar et al. Flow. Pl.
Kerala-A Hand Book 531. 2006.
Holotype: India: Kerala, Wayanad
District, near Nadugani, vi.1937, E. Barnes
1559 (K000031234 image!)
Annual, erect herbs up to 30cm.
high; branchlets terete, ascending, obscure brown-pubescent below the nodes;
internodes 3–8 cm long with a vertical line of brown pubescence. Leaves simple, opposite, narrowly elliptic,
4–10 × 2–3.5 cm, base slightly in equilateral, margin slightly wavy, acuminate
at apex, adaxial glabrous with dark green and abaxial
pale green scabrid on the nerves; lateral nerves 8–10
pairs, arising at a wide angle from the midrib; petioles 5–15 mm long; stipules
3–8 mm long, early deciduous. Inflorescence terminal, capitate cymes; peduncles
2–4 cm long. Flowers actinomorphic,
pentamerous, pinkish-white, heterostylous; bracteoles
5–8 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, subacute, slightly in equilateral, midrib
distinct, pellucid-dotted; pedicels less than 1mm, very short. Calyx valvate, 1.5–2.5 mm long; tube
5–ribbed, 1.5mm long; lobes 5, broadly acicular, ca. 1mm long, glabrous. Corolla
infundibuliform, 6–9 mm long, 5–lobed; tube 4.5–6.5 mm long, slender, very
slightly widened at the mouth, glabrous; each lobe
ca. 1.5mm long, broadly triangular, acute.
Stamens 5, epipetalous, exserted, alternate to
corolla lobes, attached to throat, inserted; filaments 2.5–3.5 mm long,
slender; anthers ca. 2mm long, linear-oblong, 2–celled, basifixed. Ovary inferior, 0.8–1.3 mm long, obovoid; disk 0.5–0.6 mm
high; style 0.8–2.5 mm long, slender; stigmas bilobed, linear, minutely puberulous. Fruit
not seen (Image 1).
Flowering: April–June.
Distribution: India: Kerala
(Wayanad).
Specimen examined: 144833 (MH!),
09.v.2019, India: Kerala, Wayanad District, Chandanathode,
near stream side (11°50’55.7”N, 75°48’22.0”E, 754m), coll. P. Murugan & V. Ravichandran (Figure 1, Image 1).
Deb & Mondal (1997) reported
that Ophiorrhiza incarnata
C.E.C.Fisch. has been collected only once after the
type based on the collection of C.E. Ridsdale 231
(MH00122489!) in 1976 from Mankulam presently at
Idukki district of Kerala. After
critical examination of this specimen with relevant literature, protologue and
type specimen at K (K000174141 image!) it is found to be Ophiorrhiza
caudata C.E.C. Fisch. Therefore, the present collection of Ophiorrhiza incarnata
C.E.C.Fisch. forms the formal rediscovery after type
collection by Barnes on June 1937 after a lapse of 83 years from the adjacent
areas of the type locality. Despite
several attempts by different workers in the type locality and adjacent areas
it could not be collected after the type collection. The statement by Hareesh
et al. (2015) about the introduction of Ophiorrhiza
incarnata in Indian gardens seems doubtful,
because Deb & Mondal (1997) clearly mentioned that it has been collected
only once after the original discovery.
It is a threatened species and deserves to be conserved in the wild and
introduced into the garden.
The species is collected from
swampy areas of Wayanad District of Kerala.
No population is recorded after 1937 by Barnes. Present collection also located as single
population of five individuals. Based on
the study of literature, herbarium data and field observations O. incarnata is provisionally categorized as Critically
Endangered (CR) based on highly restricted population numbers (<50 mature
individuals) D (IUCN 2020).
For figure
& image – click here
References
Chen, T.&
C.M. Taylor (2011). Ophiorrhiza (Rubiaceae) pp. 258–282. In: Wu, Z.Y. & P.H. Raven
(eds.). Flora of China - Vol. 19. Beijing and Missouri Botanical Garden
Press.
Darwin, S.P.
(1976). The Pacific
species of Ophiorrhiza L. (Rubiaceae).
Lyonia 1(2): 48–101.
Deb, D.B.
& D.C. Mondal (1997). Taxonomic revision of the genus Ophiorrhiza
L. (Rubiaceae) in Indian subcontinent. Bulletin of
the Botanical Survey of India 39: 1–148.
Duan L.-D., Y. Lin & L. Zhen
(2019). Ophiorrhiza shiqianensis (Rubiaceae),
a new species from Guizhou, China. Phytokeys
121: 43–51. https://doi/org/10.3897/phytokeys.121.30570
Fischer,
C.E.C. (1938). New or
little-known plants from southern India. Bulletin of Miscellaneous
Information, Kew 3: 123–127.
Hareesh, V.S. & M. Sabu (2018). The genus Ophiorrhiza
(Rubiaceae) in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India
with a new species. Phytotaxa 383(3): 259–272.
https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.383.3.3
Hareesh, V.S., V.B. Sreekumar, K.M.P.
Kumar, T.K. Nirmesh & K.A. Sreejith (2015). Ophiorrhiza sahyadriensis (Rubiaceae),
a new species from southern Western Ghats, Kerala, India. Phytotaxa
202(3): 219–224. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.202.3.6
IUCN (2020). The IUCN red list of threatened
species. Version 2019-3. http://www. iucnredlist.org. Accessed 19 March 2020.
Nayar, T.S., A.R. Beegam
& M. Sibi (2014). Flowering Plants of The Western
Ghats India, Dicots. Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, St. Joseph’s Press,
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, 794–795pp.
POWO (2020). Plants of the World Online.
Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet; http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/
Retrieved 19-03-2020.
Sasidharan, N. (2013). Flowering Plants of Kerala: CD-ROM ver
2.0. Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi.