A New Species of Eriocaulon (Eriocaulaceae) From the Southern Western Ghats of Kerala, India

Abstract

<jats:p>A new species of <jats:italic>Eriocaulon</jats:italic>, <jats:italic>E. vamanae</jats:italic>, is described from the southern Western Ghats of Kerala, India. It resembles <jats:italic>Eriocaulon nepalense</jats:italic> var. <jats:italic>luzulifolium</jats:italic> (Mart.) Praj. &amp; J.Parn. but differs in the shape of its involucral bracts and receptacle, the fusion of the sepals in male flowers, the shape and indumentum of the sepals in female flowers, the size and indumentum of the petals in female flowers, and the seed coat appendages. <jats:italic>Eriocaulon vamanae</jats:italic> is so far known only from the type locality, Meesapulimala in Idukki District, Kerala, and is assessed as ‘Critically Endangered’ according to the IUCN’s <jats:italic>Red List Categories and Criteria</jats:italic>.</jats:p>

Eriocaulon sanjappae (Eriocaulaceae), a new species from the southern Western Ghats, India

“…The species are mostly acaulescent herbs with a monoecious capitate inflorescence. Ansari and Balakrishnan (2009) reported 80 species from India, but several new taxa have subsequently been added from India bringing the total number to 112 (Shimpale et al 2009, Shimpale and Yadav 2010, Vivek et al 2010, Nampy et al 2011, Biju et al 2012, Swapna et al 2012, Sunil et al 2013, 2014, Rashmi and Krishnakumar 2014, Manudev et al 2015, Sunil and Naveen Kumar 2015, Anto and Reshma 2017, Darshetkar et al 2017, Naveen Kumar et al 2017, Paithane et al 2017, Chandore et al 2019, Khanna and Kumar 2019, Francis et al 2020.…”

New Chromosome Counts in Three <i>Eriocaulon</i> Species from India

“…However, this work does exclude three taxa previously described or recorded by different authors (Myrthong et al 1983). Since then, 22 taxa have been added (Francis et al 2020) accounting for about 110 species for the country. Of the 110 Eriocaulon species, about 60% are endemic to India, but there is very little cytological information available.…”