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MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 16. SOME RARE AND ENDANGERED PLANT SPECIES OF GUJARAT, INDIA P.S. Nagar1’3 Sachin Sata1-4andT.D. Parmar2 , M 'DepartmentofBotany,The S.UniversityofBaroda,Vadodara390002,Gujarat,India. •GujaratCollege,Ahmedabad380009,Gujarat,India. •’Email: [email protected] 4Email: [email protected] During an extensive survey on the floristic diversity Flowering & Fruiting: September-November of Saurashtra (2000-2003) some interesting and threatened Presentstatus: Endangered plants of Gujarat, Polygala irregularis Boiss. Diag., Habitat and Ecology: The plant was growing on the Lotuscorniculatusvar.minorBaker, Tephrosiajamnagarensis clayey and silty saline soil. Santapau, Periploca aphylla Decaisne and Lepidagathis Specimen examined: PSN-SAU 1039 (8.x.2001) cristata Wild were collected; of these the occurrence of Lotus corniculatus var. minor Baker is a new record to 3. Tephrosiajamnagarensis Santapau (Fabaceae) the flora for Gujarat hitherto not recorded from Gujarat During a survey of the vegetation of Khad sensu Santapau (1962), Shah (1978), and Bole and Khambhaliyavidi(Grassland),Lalpur,Jamnagardistrict,we Pathak (1988). The details of the plants are as observed an endangered and endemic plant species of follows: SaurashtraTephrosiajamnagarensis(Santapau 1958;Kothari and Hajra 1983; Shah 1983; Nayar and Sastry 1988) at the 1. Polygalairregularis Boiss. (Polygalaceae) lower slopes of hillocks. The present collection forms the While studying the flora of Sutrapada coastal Forest, rediscoveryofthisveryinterestingtaxonafteragapofalmost Veraval, wecollectedandobservedP. irregularisin isolated threedecades.Also,itreinstatestheendemicityofthespecies. pockets.Cooke(1901)hasstated“arareplant,foundinSind Theplantswereobservedonthegravelcalcareoussoil.The andoncoastofKathiyawad,Gujarat”.WhereasShah(1978) speciesisveryrareandendemictotheregion.Arecentsurvey refers to Saxton (no. 3273) collected from Ahmedabad, showed that the plant does not occur in the earlier stated extremely rare. The plant is rare in the region and requires regions or surroundings, moreover, is encroached by immediateattention. agriculture fields (Nagar2000; Rao2002). Therarity ofthe Flowering & Fruiting: September-December plant owes to overgrazing, habitat destruction, lack of Presentstatus: Uncommon protection, and probable otherbiotic factors. Habitat: Sandy openplains Specimen examined: BSI 115190, 94791, PSN-SAU TaxonomicHistory 1028 (19.x.2001) The holotype was collected by Santapau for the first timenearRoziinJamnagar,GujaratontheOctober 16, 1945 2. Lotus corniculatus var.minorBaker(Fabaceae) and was deposited in the Blatter herbarium, Bombay (now An interesting species of Lotus was observed while Mumbai), India, under the type specimen Santapau 7522. exploringthefloraofKhijadiyaBirdSanctuary(onthebank Ahluwalia collected it on August 24, 1954, in flower buds of Jambuda Lake), Jamnagar. On critically examining the from Victoria Bridge, Jamnagar (Santapau 1962). The specimen,itwasidentifiedasLotuscorniculatusvar. minor specimenwaslastcollectedfromBharuchin1972(Vyas 1973; Baker. This is a dwarfformofL. corniculatus L.; recorded Shah 1978). by Hooker (1876) from the plains of Sind with solitary Flowering & Fruiting: September-November flowers and fleshy leaflets 1/8 inchlong. Cooke (1901) has Presentstatus: Rare invidi(grassland) stated the variety with solitary flowers and is confined to HabitatandEcology:Itgrowsusuallyonsandyloamy Sind only. The present observation extends the earlier to gravel calcareous soil on the undulating slopes of the known distribution ofthe species. There is no report ofthe grassland. species in the Flora of Gujarat (Shah 1978) and in that of Specimen examined: H. Santapau: Jamnagar-7522 Saurashtra (Thaker 1910; Santapau 1962; Santapau and BLAT(16.x.1945), PSN-SAU 1058 (17.X.2001) Janardhanan 1966; Bole and Pathak 1988).Thus, toreferto itsoccurrenceandhabitat,thesamehasbeenaccountedhere 4.Periplocaaphylla Decaisne, (Periplocaceae) (Fig. 1). This plant was located at the coastal belt of 226 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 106 (2), May-Aug 2009 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES Sind and Kutch (now Kachchh) area (Shah 1978). However, it is first observation to the flora of Saurashtra, Gujarat. Flowering & Fruiting: August-October. Presentstatus; Endangered. Habitat: Sandy and Saline. Specimen examined: BSI 61964, 32876, PSN-SAU 1234 (8.x.2001) 5.Lepidagathiscristata Wild (Acanthaceae) The plant has been recorded for the first time from ShetrunjayaHills,Palitana,Saurashtra.Earliertheplantwas recorded from north Gujarat (Idar) on old walls ofthe fort and hilly slopes (Shah 1978). Flowering & Fruiting: October-December Presentstatus: Uncommon. Location: Shetrunjay Hills, Palitana, Bhavnagar district. Habitat: Shadeofscrubbyvegetationinthe slopeand along the rockyriverine area. Specimen examined: G.L. Shah: N.Gujarat-57062 BLAT(1978), PSN-SAU 1339 (31.X.2001). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS WearedeeplythankfultoDepartmentofBiosciences, Saurashtra University, Rajkot and GEER Foundation, Gandhinagarforthe financial support. We are also grateful F. Keel; G. Stamenswith Pistill; I. Fruit to Dr. S.M. Almeida for providing access to the Blatter Jamnagar. Only few individuals ofthe same were recorded Herbarium,Mumbai,andtoBotanicalSurveyofIndia(BSI), from the area. Earlier the plant has been recorded from Pune forthe confirmation ofthe species. REFERENCES Bole, P.V. & J.M. Pathak (1988): Flora ofSaurashtra. Part II & III. Flora. Proc. Nat. Sci. Inst. India24B: 133. t. 1. BotanicalSurveyofIndia,Calcutta. 545 pp. Santapau,H. (1962):TheFloraofSaurashtra,Part -1(Ranunculaceae Cooke, T. (1901): The Flora of Bombay Presidency. Vol. I-III. BSI toRubiaceae). Pp. 270. SaurashtraResearchSociety, Rajkot. Calcutta. 649pp. Santapau, H. & K.P. Janardhanan (1966): The Flora of Saurashtra Hooker,J.D. (1876):TheFloraofBritishIndia. Vol 2,pp. 91. (Checklist). Bull. Bot. Surv. India8: Supply. 1:1-58. Kothari, M.J. & P.K. Hajra (1983): Materials for a Catalogue of Shah, G.L. (1978): Flora of Gujarat. Part I. Pp. 248. Sardar Patel Threatened plants of India. Pp.45. Botanical Survey of India. University, VallabhVidyanagar. Howrah. Shah, GL. (1983): Rare species with restricted distribution in South Nagar, PS. (2000): Biodiversity of the Barda Hills. Ph.D. Thesis. Gujarat. Pp. 50-54. In: S.K. Jain & R.R. Rao. (Eds): An SaurashtraUniversity, Rajkot. assessment of Threatened Plants of India. Bot. Surv. India, Nayar,M.P.&A.R.K.Sastry(1988):RedDataBookofIndianPlants. Calcutta. Vol. II. Pp. 133. Bot. Surv. India. Thaker, J.I. (1910): Vanaspati Sastara- BardaDungami Jadibuti tani Rao,V.R.(2002):AnassessmentofEndangeredplantsofGujarat.Ph.D. ParikshaanaeUpyog.(Botany-AcompleteandComprehensive thesissubmittedtoS.P.University,VallabhVidyanagar,Gujarat, Accountofthe FloraofBardaMountain(Kathiawad). Gujarati India. PrintingPress. Bombay. Pp. 717. Shah, G.L. (1978): Flora ofGujarat. Part II. Sardar Patel University, Vyas, K.J.(1973):Contributiontothefloristicsandphytosociologyof Vallabh Vidyanagar. theriver Narmada in Gujarat State. Ph.D. Thesis submitted to Santapau, H. (1958): Addition and corrections to the Indo-Nepalese S.P. University,VallabhVidyanagar, Gujarat. Printedby Bro. LeoatSt. Francis IndustrialTraining Institute, Borivli, Mumbai400 103 and published on June 15, 2010 byDr. AshokKothari forBombayNaturalHistory Society, Hombill House, Dr. SalimAli Chowk, ShaheedBhagatSinghRoad, Mumbai 400001, Maharashtra, India.