THE NEW DISTRIBUTIONAL RECORD OF Wrightia indica Ngan, (APOCYNACEAE) FROM VELUGONDA HILLS OF NELLORE DISTRICT, ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA

摘要

Wrightia indica Ngan; from Velugonda hills of Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh, India, is described and illustrated.As a part of my project work on digitalization of floristic resources of Velugonda hills of Eastern Ghats, I collected few plants of lesser known species of Wrightia indica Ngan, of Apocynaceae, at high altitudes of Velugonda hills of Eastern Ghats in Sitarampuram -Porumamilla ghat. The genus Wrightia R.Br., has 29 species chiefly distributed in tropics. In India Wrightia arborea (Dennst.) Mabberley and Wrightia tinctoria (Roxb.) R.Br, are well known and widely distributed. Wrightia antidysenterica (L.)R.Br., (Cultivated), Wrightia coccinea (Roxb. ex Horaem.) Sims, Wrightia dolichocarpa Bahadur & Bennet Wrightia indica Ngan, Wrightia pubescens R.Br., Wrightia rheedii Koste Land Wrightia sikkimensis Gamble are less known species. Wrightia indica Ngan,is rare and considered as endemic to Tamilnadu, the plant is found in Nilagiris and Salem (BSI); Dharmapur (IBP) and Kunoor hills of Tamilnadu. A herbarium specimen is stored under the name of Wrightia rothii G.Don (Family Apocynaceae); in Natural History Museum (BM), BMOO1014086. No collections were noticed in A.P. But in my study I have located the species in Sitarampuram -Porumamilla ghat of Velugonda hills of E. Ghats, A.P. between 14.915°N -15.000°N and 78.888° -79.298° E. After a detailed review of the literature it is known that there are no collections of Wrightia indica Ngan from Andhra Pradesh. Therefore it is the new distributional record of the species. To facilitate easy identification, a detaileddescription and illustrations are provided. One important feature corolla in Wrightia is presence of corona, which is a variable structure and important feature in classification of the genus.