REDISCOVERY OF INDOTRISTICHA TIRUNELVELIANA B.D. SHARMA, KARTHIK. & B.V. SHETTY (PODOSTEMACEAE), FROM KALAKAD MUNDANTHURAI TIGER RESERVE, TAMIL NADU, INDIA

摘要

The family Podostemaceae consists of 49 genera and about 280 species in the World (Cook and Rutishauser, 2000). The genus Indotristicha Van Royen has about two species distributed in India, particulary South India (Cook, 1996; Kato, 2006). In Tamil Nadu, the genus is represented by two species viz., Indotristicha ramosissima (Wight) Royen and /. tirunelveliana B.D. Sharma, Karthik and B.V. Shetty (Kumari, 1987). /. tirunelveliana was described as a new species in 1977 based on the specimens collectedfrom Thulukamparai in 1972. Since then, it has not been collected though the type locality was well botanized (Gopalan and Henry, 2000; Manickam et al., 2003). Consequently, many authors considered it as one among the endangered species of Tamil Nadu (Ahmedullah and Nayar, 1987; Annamalai et al, 2009; Gopalan, 2009; Gopalan and Henry, 2000; Nayar, 1996).