Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2022 | 14(2): 20689–20691
ISSN 0974-7907
(Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7643.14.2.20689-20691
#7643 | Received 03
September 2021 | Final received 02 February 2022 | Finally accepted 10 February
2022
Geodorum laxiflorum Griff. (Orchidaceae),
a new distribution record for Maharashtra state of India
Ashish Ravindra Bhoyar 1, Swapnil Nandgawe
2, Syed Abrar Ahmed 3 & Saduram Madavi 4
1,2,3 Post Graduate Department of Botany, Government Science
College, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra 442605, India.
3Department of Botany, Government
College of Arts and Science, Aurangabad, Maharashtra 431004, India.
4 Biodiversity Management
Committee, Tukum, Dhanora
Dist. Gadchiroli, Maharashtra 442606, India.
1 imashu90@gmail.com, 2 snandgawe1@gmail.com,
3 sdabrar645@gmail.com (corresponding author), 4 madavisaduram@gmail.com
Editor: Jeewan
Jalal Singh, Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata, India. Date
of publication: 26 February 2022 (online & print)
Citation: Bhoyar, A.R., S. Nandgawe, S.A.
Ahmed & S. Madavi (2022). Geodorum laxiflorum Griff. (Orchidaceae), a new
distribution record for Maharashtra state of India. Journal of
Threatened Taxa 14(2): 20689–20691. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7643.14.2.20689-20691
Copyright: © Bhoyar et al. 2022. 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 are thankful to the principal, Government
Science College, Gadchiroli for providing laboratory
facilities; and Dr. Mandar Paingankar, head, Department of Zoology for support and
valuable suggestions while preparing this manuscript.
Orchidaceae is one of the most diverse and largest families of
Angiosperms comprising more than 28,000 recognised plants in around 763 genera
(Willis 2017; Jain et al. 2021). In India,
around 1,331 species coming under 186 genera represent around 5.98% of the
world’s orchid flora and 6.83% of the flowering plants in India (De 2020).
Recent botanical explorations in Maharashtra, revealed the presence of 32
genera with 106 taxa. The most dominant genus is Habenaria
with 23 species, followed by Dendrobium with 11, Eulophia
and Oberonia with seven, and Peristylus with six species (Jalal & Jayanthi
2018). The genus Geodorum Jackson is an
Indo-Malesian group of about 12 species (Bhatt et al.
2015; Govaerts et al. 2017). In India only six
species are found, namely, Geodorum appendiculatum Griff., G. densiflorum
(Lam.) Schlr., G. laxiflorum
Griff., G. pallidum D.Don, G. recurvum (Roxb.) Alston., and
G. attenuatum Griff. (Misra
2007; Kumar et al. 2008; Bhatt et al. 2015; Govaerts
et al. 2015). During our exploration we came across a plant which was blooming
in the deep forest of Dhanora Tehsil (20.233N,
80.346E) (Figure 1) in Gadchiroli district of
Maharashtra, India. The flowering plant looked like pearls spread on the green
belt of earth; our curiosity led us to investigate it further.
Markagaon forest range (20.233N, 80.346E) (Figure 1) in the
southern part of Dhanora tehsil is well known for its
dense dry deciduous forest. Dhanora tehsil is covered
with hills and forests and is considered a tribal area. Gadchiroli District
mainly receives rain from the south-west monsoon. The average rainfall is 1,562
mm. The climatic conditions are extreme with temperatures reaching 47.3 °C in
summer and 9.4 °C in winter.
During our thorough exploration in the Gadchiroli district, we observed the taxa with some
interesting characters and is described technically as follows:
Geodorum laxiflorum Griff.
Calcutta J. Nat. Hist. 5: 356 (1845); Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 6: 18 (1890); G.Seidenfaden,
Opera Botanica 72: 51 (1983); S.Misra, Orch. Orissa:
560 (2004); Bhatt et al., Richadiana: 333(2015).
Plant terrestrial, 30–50 cm tall (including leaves);
corm 4.5–5 cm, ovoid, slightly compressed, greenish-brown, with scars of fallen
leaves; roots few, vermiform, ca. 0.2 cm thick; pseudo stem ca. 10 × 1 cm,
enclosed by four foliar imbricating sheaths; leaves 2–4, cauline, alternate,
elliptic lanceolate, acute, undulate, subequal, 13–36 × 8–12 cm, many veined,
midvein prominent beneath; inflorescence lateral from the base of newly
developed leafy shoot and shorter than it, 20–30 cm; peduncle erect, 20–27 ×
0.2 cm, green, decurved at the top, with four membranous tubular sheaths;
raceme laxly flowered with 6–12 medium sized flowers; rachis decurved, ca. 2.5–
4 cm long with two sterile bracts; bracts green, oblong lanceolate, ca. 1.1 ×
0.3 cm, membranous with acute apex, 3 veined; pedicel with ovary 1.3 cm long,
ribbed; flowers white off-white, sepals and petals spreading, 1.5– 2.5 cm
across; sepals subequal, 5-veined, oblong lanceolate; dorsal sepal ca. 2.1 ×
0.6–0.7 cm; lateral sepals ca. 2.2 × 0.8 cm; petals broader, obovate oblong,
ca. 2.3 × 1.2 cm, apex acute obtuse, 7-veined; lip ca. 2.1 × 1.5–1.7 cm,
broadly obovate, emarginated, sessile on the base of column, entire, ventricose at the base; sides of the hypochile
erect; epichile undulate, edge deflexed, two
irregular rows of thick warts starting from the base of the epichile
and ending before the apex, hypochile golden brown
within, epichile yellow at base and pink at apex;
column stout, short, oblong, slightly dilated, ca. 0.5–0.6 × 0.3 cm long;
stigma squarish, ca. 0.2 cm long, anther broadly ovate orbicular in outline,
ca. 0.3–0.4 cm, off-white with brown tinge, the locules
pouch like; pollinia yellow, obliquely oblong ovoid, porate
behind, ca. 0.2 × 0.15 cm, stipe hyaline, subquadrate
(Image 1).
Flowering: June–July; Fruiting: August–October.
Ecology: Extremely rare in dry deciduous
forests, at an elevation range of about 263 m.
Distribution: Endemic to India Assam, Andhra
Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Odisha, Telangana, and Maharashtra
(this report).
Specimen examined: GSC/Gad/Bot.Sp.No.
263, 27.vii.2021, Markagaon forest range, Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra, India, coll. Syed Abrar
Ahmed. The specimen is preserved in the Department of Botany, Government
Science College, Gadchiroli.
Recently, Geodorum
laxiflorum was reported from southern peninsular
India from Nallamalai hills, part of the Eastern
Ghats of Andhra Pradesh (Rao & Prasad 2011) and from the Western Ghats, Waghai taluka of Dangs district,
Gujarat state (Bhatt et al. 2015).
For
figure & images - - click here
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