<i>Colocasia hassanii</i> (Araceae), A new species of aroid from Bangladesh

Abstract

Colocasia hassanii, a new species of Araceae from Bangladesh, is described and illustrated. C. hassanii is closely related to C. esculenta (L.) Schott but differs from the later by the number of constriction (two) in spathe, presence of a sterile male zone in spadix, and bitter in taste. A morphological comparison between C. hassanii and C. esculenta is provided. IntroductionThe genus Colocasia Schott is represented by 13 species in the world (Yin, 2006) and eight species are found in Asia and Malay Archipelago (Mayo et al., 1997). In Bangladesh, so far this genus was known to contain the following nine species: . Hay and C. virosa Kunth. (Ara, 2007;Ara and Hassan, 2012).During the revisionary work on Araceae since 1988 from Bangladesh the author has made an extensive field survey throughout the country and collected a few number of Colocasia Schott specimens which did not match with any species previously known. The flowering and fruiting specimens were collected and preserved for identification. The rhizomes were also collected and grown in the garden of Bangladesh National Herbarium (DACB), Dhaka and in the Botanical Garden of the University of Dhaka. The specimens were critically examined and compared with the identified specimens of Colocasia Schott available at BK, BKF, BM, CAL, DACB, K, DUSH (Dhaka University Salar Khan Herbarium), HCU (Herbarium of Chittagong University), BCSIRH (Herbarium, Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) and BFRIH (Herbarium, Bangladesh Forest Research Institute). Moreover, consultation of relevant literature (Wallich, 1829(Wallich, -1849Roxburgh, 1832; Wight, 1843 Wight, -1845Hooker, 1893;Prain, 1903;Engler and Krause 1920;Haines, 1924;Heinig, 1925;Hill, 1939;Raizada, 1941;Sinclair, 1956;Mitra, 1958;Hu, 1968;Hotta, 1970;Rao and Verma, 1976;Nicolson, 1976Nicolson, , 1979Nicolson, , 1987Madison, 1978;Nasir, 1978;Heng, 1979;Mayo, 1985;Karthikeyan et al., 1989;Naithani, 1990;Heng and Wei, 1993;Noltie, 1994;Hay, 1996;Pullaiah, 1997;Toha, 2000;Long and Liu, 2001;Yin, 2006) on the family Araceae revealed that collected specimens differed from other described species of the genus Colocasia Schott. These specimens appeared to be closely related to C. esculenta Schott morphologically but differed with some important characters. After critical study these specimens were recognized as to belong a new species, Colocasia hassanii sp. nov.

New records of three species and a variety of Angiosperms for Bangladesh

“…The flora of Bangladesh comprises a total of 3873 species of Angiosperms including 262 new records (Haque et al, 2012;Rahman et al, 2016;Rahman and Hassan, 2017;Islam and Rahman, 2017;Sourav et al, 2017;Ara, 2018;Ara and Hassan, 2018;Islam et al, 2018;Uddin et al, 2018;Uddin 2018;Alfasane et al, 2019Alfasane et al, , 2020Hossain et al, 2019;Huda et al, 2019) reported so far after the publication of Encyclopedia of Flora and Fauna of Bangladesh by Siddiqui et al (2007Siddiqui et al ( -2008 and Ahmed et al (2008Ahmed et al ( -2009.…”

New records of three species and a genus of angiosperms for Bangladesh

“…Bangladesh harbors a total of 3715 species of Angiosperms (Ahmed et al, 2008(Ahmed et al, -2009Rahman et al, 2016;Rahman and Hossain, 2017;Islam and Rahman, 2017;Sourav et al, 2017;Ara, 2018;Ara and Hassan, 2018;Uddin et al, 2018;Alfasane et al, 2019). During the botanical explorations in Sundarban Mangrove Forest of Bangladesh conducted in 2016-2018 by the authors, some specimens of Angiosperms were collected which did not match with any known plant species of Bangladesh.…”