New additions to the flora of Uttarakhand , India

Botanical explorations in different parts of Uttarakhand resulted in collection of seven angiosperm species which were not known previously from the state. These are described here with images of live plants and herbarium specimens.

Uttarakhand is one of the Himalayan states in India and its area is about 53,483km 2 , mainly made up of mountainous terrain.The state hardly covers 1.69% of the land area of India but hosts more than 27.96% flowering plant diversity (Karthikeyan 2000;Uniyal et al. 2007) which speaks of the richness of flora here.This area has been a focus of plant collections as far back as 1796 when Thomas Hardwicke collected plants from the Alaknanda Valley of Garhwal.Since then, a large number of plant collectors have explored the area and a great deal of information was available about the flowering plants of this area by the beginning of the 21 st century.Based on these collections, floristic reports and their own collections, Uniyal et al. (2007) compiled a checklist of flowering plants of Uttarakhand as a baseline data for writing the flora of Uttarakhand.This valuable document indicates the presence of nearly 4,700 species of flowering plants (including 32 species of Gymnosperms and a few cultivated species).
In routine botanical explorations in different parts of Uttarakhand a few interesting specimens were collected and identified with the help of relevant taxonomic literature and by comparing them with authentic specimens housed at the herbaria of Botanical Survey of India (BSI) and Forest Research Institute (DD) at Dehradun.These species proved as additions to the flora of Uttarakhand as these were not mentioned in Uniyal et al. (2007).Considering it, these species are being reported here for the first time from Uttarakhand.Their description including correct name, basionym (based on The Plant List 2010, International Plant Name Index 2012 or other recent literature), name in Flora of British India (Hooker 1872-97), and photographs of their natural state and their flowering/ fruiting times are provided here in this communication for future reference and further correct identification.The species are arranged in the sequence of families as per Uniyal et al. (2007).
Flowering and Fruiting: September-November.
Flowering and Fruiting: July-October.On steep slopes in high alpine zones with mosses.This alpine plant species is a newly described species from Uttarakhand (Gornall et al. 2012) and considered, till date, an endemic to Kedarnath area in Uttarakhand.
Flowering and Fruiting: September-December.Along streams, climbing over grasses, shrubs.
Oxystelma esculentum is considered as a widespread species and Karthikeyan et al. (2009) have reported it from throughout the plains and lower hills of India.However, it is being reported for the first time from Uttarakhand as it is not mentioned in Uniyal et al. (2007).
Flowering and Fruiting: September-January.
In marshy areas making dense thickets.Karthikeyan et al. (2009) have mentioned its distribution throughout India but it is not included in Uniyal et al (2007) which makes it a new addition to the flora of Uttarakhand.