A new species of alpine plant in Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang district has been discovered by a group of scientists of three institutes of the country, according to a paper published in Biodiversitas: Journal of Biological Diversity.
The new species belongs to the family of Himalayan sunflower, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology research fellow Lobsang Tashi Thungon, who is a member of the team, said.
"It is named as Cremanthodium indicum, and the plant species which generally flowers from July to August, is endemic to Penga-Teng Tso Lake of Tawang district, where it was discovered," he said.
Two other scientists on the team are Dipankar Borah, an associate professor of Botany at Goalpara College in Assam and Rajeev Kumar Singh, a scientist at Botanical Survey of India (BSI).
"The alpine plant species is assessed as critically endangered, according to the IUCN guidelines," Thungon said.
Habitat of Cremanthodium indica. Credit: Borah et al
“It is a perennial herb and stands 16–24 cm tall. Cremanthodium indica grows in boggy soil among mosses along the banks of alpine lake,” adds the paper.
Tawang district holds one of the assemblages of flowering plants in the northeastern state, which attracts botanists across the world.
