I am forwarding herewith the mail received on the subject.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: V. Santharam <santhara...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 10:12 AM
Subject: {MNS:7993} A new wild ginger discovered from the evergreen forest
of Western Ghats of South India
To: Madras Naturalists' Society <blackb...@googlegroups.com>
A new wild ginger discovered from the evergreen forest of Western
Ghats of South India
Intensive botanical explorations for taxonomic studies on the members
of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) in India by V.P. Thomas and M.
Sabu of the University of Calicut, have resulted in the discovery of
an interesting species of Amomum (Cardamom) from Silent Valley
National Park on the Western Ghats of Kerala.
The ginger family consists of 53 genera and over 1,200 species, many
of which are widely used as spices, for medical purposes, or simply
for decoration. Amomum Roxb. is the second largest genus within the
Zingiberaceae, comprising about 150-180 species, including several
types of cardamom. Widely distributed in Southeast Asia, the genus is
represented by 23 species in India, mostly restricted to North-East
India, South India and the Andaman-Nicobar Islands.
In the new species, the authors show some similarities with A.
masticatorium, although the two are clearly distinct. The new plant's
name refers to its locality, i.e. Nilgiri hills, a part of Western
Ghats and one of the hotspots of the Indian subcontinent. The most
notable feature of the plant is the presence of long ligules that
reach up to 9 cm long and small flowers with a long corolla tube.
Almost all parts of the plant are hairy.
It is a high altitude species (found above 1,200 m), and attempts to
conserve it outside its natural locality were unsuccessful. The
conservation status evaluation revealed that it falls under the
critically endangered category of the International Union for
Conservation of Nature, 2001. Conservation measures are to be carried
out very urgently to recover the plant from extinction.
Original source:
Thomas VP, Sabu M, Prabhu Kumar KM (2012) Amomum nilgiricum
(Zingiberaceae), a new species from Western Ghats, India. PhytoKeys 8:
99-104. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.8.2152
Additional information:
>From the 1st of January 2012, PhytoKeys is publishing each paper
separately, on the day it is approved by the editors. The article by
Prof Sabu is the closing one for the 8th issue of the journal, making
it complete.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/pp-anw010512.php
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