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New flowering plant species discovered in Manipur

Oct 17, 2023 05:31 PM IST

The new flowering plant species is a robust plant, as tall as eight feet, having large terminal inflorescence

Three researchers in Manipur have discovered a new flowering plant species in Kakching district and have named the new plant species Curcuma kakchingense, in honour of the place where it was found.

The species has close resemblance to Curcuma phrayawan, a species reported from Thailand. (Sourced photo)
The species has close resemblance to Curcuma phrayawan, a species reported from Thailand. (Sourced photo)

The researchers who made the discovery were Dr L Bidyaleima, Dr Rajkumar Kishor and Prof GJ Sharma from Department of Life Sciences, Manipur University and Kwaklei and Khonggunmelei Orchids Pvt Ltd.

The discovery has also been published in the peer reviewed journal Nordic Journal of Botany on October 11 this year.

Curcuma kakchingense belongs to the angiospermic family Zingiberaceae that includes Curcuma, Gingers and Cardamom.

“The new flowering plant species is a robust plant, as tall as eight feet, having large terminal inflorescence,” Dr L Bidyaleima said.

Also Read: New plant species discovered in Western Ghats

“The species has close resemblance to Curcuma phrayawan, a species reported from Thailand and also Curcuma longa also known as yaingang in local tongue but is distinguished by having lemon-yellow rhizomes with a very bitter taste.”

It was found dwelling along the bank of the Sekmai River of Kakching district, she added.

As it is known only from a particular area and information regarding the distributions and number of mature individuals in the natural habitat is lacking, its conservation status remains Data Deficient under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List category.

According to IUCN, Data Deficient (DD) is a condition applied to species in which the amount of available data related to its risk of extinction is lacking in some way. Consequently, a complete assessment cannot be performed.

“Therefore, possible threat of extinction to the plant is yet to be assessed,” said Dr Rajkumar Kishor of Manipur based Kwaklei and Khonggunmelei Orchids Pvt Ltd.

Until the report of Curcuma kakchingense discovery, there were only 93 recorded Curcuma names as accepted species worldwide, of these 67 are from Thailand.

For India, 42 Curcuma species were recorded and the last one to be described was Curcuma kshonapatra from Karnataka in 2016, while from Mizoram was Curcuma rubrobracteata in 2003.

Despite extensive diversity and distribution of Curcuma plants in northeast India, their inventory work is taking place at a relatively slow pace. There could be many more undescribed plant species in the pristine forest of Northeast India and the chances of them getting extinct before discovery is very high, Dr Rajkumar Kishor who discovered a rare orchid - Zingiber Kangleipakense in 2013, added.

Curcuma is important for their use in cuisines, traditional medicines, spices, dyes, perfumes, cosmetics, and as ornamental plants.

Therefore, discovery of new species of Curcuma will definitely open up new vistas for investigation of their phytochemistry, biological activity and application in development of new nutraceuticals or pharmaceutical novelties, the researcher said.

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