WESTERN GHATS

For: Preliminary & Mains

Topics covered:

• Two new plant species discovered
• About the Western Ghats

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News Flash

Two new plant species discovered from Shola forests

• A team of researchers discovered the two new plant species belonging to the Asclepiadaceae or milkweed family from the shola forests of the Western Ghats.
• Latex in plant parts and pappus seeds are the general characteristics of the family.

 

What

• Tylophora balakrishnanii, a straggling vine, has been discovered from the Thollayiram shola in Wayanad, a biodiversity hotspot in the Nilgiri biosphere reserve. The tuberous species has been discovered by a team of researchers.
• Tylophora neglecta has been discovered from the shola forest on the Thooval Mala hill under the Achencoil forest division in Kollam.
• Researchers could find five to six Tylophora balakrishnanii and 15 to 16 Tylophora neglecta plants in the respective areas.

 

Highlights

• The flowers of the new species are white with a violet tinge. Its leaves are thick and bristly in nature.
• Flowers of the plant are reddish-pink and the species is similar to the coastal plant Tylophora flexuosa.

 

Western Ghats

• These are also known as Sahyadri, are a mountain range that covers an area parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula, traversing the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
• It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the eight “hottest hot-spots” of biological diversity in the world.
• It contains a large proportion of the country’s flora and fauna, many of which are only found in India and nowhere else in the world.
• According to UNESCO, the Western Ghats are older than the Himalayas.
• The range runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain, called Konkan, along the Arabian Sea.

 

Source: The Hindu

 

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