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Rare Assam Plant Rediscovered After 180 Years On Hillside
A small flowering plant in Assam had not been seen by scientists for 180 years.
It was first collected in 1845 and then disappeared from scientific records.
A doctoral student found it while exploring the Jatinga Hills.
Other botanists compared the new plants with the old dried specimen and confirmed they were the same species.
The plant grows in cool, wet, shaded forest areas.
Only about 40 to 42 plants were found, all on one hillside.
This means one disaster could harm the entire known population.
Researchers want to look for more plants and learn how to grow it in safer places.
A doctoral student found Rungia mastersii in Assam’s Jatinga Hills, where it had not been recorded since 1845.
Researchers confirmed the plant’s identity by comparing new specimens with the original herbarium material.
Only 40 to 42 plants were found, all in one damp, rocky forest patch.
The isolated population could be threatened by landslides, fires or changes in stream flow.
Researchers plan further surveys and studies to assess its status and support possible propagation elsewhere.
- Who
- Kangkan Kumar Das, Assam University researchers, and collaborating botanists identified the plant.
- What
- Rungia mastersii, a shrub last recorded by science in 1845, was rediscovered.
- Where
- The plant was found in a damp, rocky crevice in the Jatinga Hills of Dima Hasao district, Assam, near Barail Wildlife Sanctuary.
- When
- The rediscovery occurred this year; the findings were published in July, with flowering expected around September and October.
- Why
- Das was surveying the Acanthaceae family for doctoral research, and the discovery prompted concerns about the species’ extremely small known population.
Key facts
- Species
- Rungia mastersii
- Original record
- Collected in 1845 by British botanist J.W. Masters along Assam’s Sundari river
- Known population
- Approximately 40 to 42 individual plants
- Habitat
- Shaded, moist forest at 900 to 1,250 metres above sea level
- Rediscovery site
- Jatinga Hills, Dima Hasao district, Assam
- Scientific publication
- Findings published in July in Feddes Repertorium
- Conservation status
- Officially classified as Not Evaluated under International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List criteria
Sources
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