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Botanists from the Botanical Survey of India announced the discovery of a new species of flowering plant, Crassicaulis middletonii, in the evergreen forests of Arunachal Pradesh. This is the first record of the genus Crassicaulis in India and extends the known range of the genus by more than 1,200 kilometres westwards from China's Yunnan Province.

Background

• Crassicaulis middletonii belongs to the Gesneriaceae family, which also includes ornamental plants like African violets. The genus was previously known only from the species C. guiliangii found in Yunnan.
• The new species was discovered in the West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. It grows on stream banks near small waterfalls at elevations around 800 metres.
• The plant is named after Dr David J. Middleton, a British botanist renowned for his work on the Gesneriaceae family.

Distinctive features

• The plant grows up to about 30 centimetres tall and has broad leaves with a distinctive base. Its white flowers are tinged with pink and possess a capsule and calyx that distinguish it from its only known relative.
• It produces greenish ovaries and elongated seed capsules. Less than fifty individual plants were found during the field survey, indicating a very limited distribution.

Conservation status

• The species' restricted range and the threats posed by pollution, landslides and flooding along the stream bank habitat mean that it qualifies as Critically Endangered under the IUCN Red List criteria.
• Conservationists recommend immediate measures to protect the site and further surveys to search for additional populations.

Sources: Northeast Now