Short Communication Umbrella Starwort Stellaria umbellata Turcz. (Caryophyllaceae): a new record to the flora of the western Himalaya, India

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The genus Stellaria L. is cosmopolitan in distribution and represented by 120 species in the world and mainly distributed in the northern temperate regions (Mabberley 2008).Stellaria belongs to the Subfamily Alsinoideae (DC.) Fenzl and Tribe Alsineae DC. of the family Caryophyllaceae Juss.(Bittrich 1993).This genus occurs in various habitats from the plains to the alpine regions, often in shady locations or on rocky slopes.In India, the genus is represented by 19 species distributed from the temperate to the alpine regions (Majumdar 1993;Pusalkar & Srivastava 2015;Sekar & Srivastava 2007).It is characterized by exstipulate leaves, free sepals, bipartite petals varying from mid to base, and fruit a dehiscent capsule, opening by valves twice as many as styles.
Fruiting: September-October.Distribution: This species is known from Siberia, China, North America and Kazakhstan (Shishkin 1936;Shilong & Rabeler 2001;Morton 2005) and from India.It often occurs near the snow line in the western Himalaya on rocks with mosses in small populations.

Morphological variation within species
The species S. umbellata shows remarkable morphological variations according to geographical regions.In the Baikal mountains in Russia and in China plant height of the species commonly reaches up to 5-15 cm, while in Indian and North American populations it may reach up to 20cm and 40cm respectively.The shape and size of leaves are also variable.In Russian populations leaves are 5-15 × 2-7 mm, elliptic -oblong, apex acute-acuminate and proximal leaves are smaller than the distal leaves but in the North American population leaves are 3-9 cm × 1-3 mm, ellipticlanceolate, somewhat succulent and all leaves are almost equal in length.Numbers of flowers in terminal cymose umbel are 3-10 in Russian, Chinese and Indian populations but extend up to 20 in North American populations.Number of stamens ranges in the species from 5-10.In North American populations five stamens are recorded while 10 stamens are present in Russian and Chinese population.In Indian population the number of stamens ranges from 5-10.If five stamens are present then all are fertile, if 10 stamens are present then either all are fertile or 2-4 are staminodes (Turczaninow 1842;Shishkin 1936;Shilong & Rabeler 2001;Morton 2005).Flora of China (Shilong & Rabeler 2001) distinguished S. subumbellata from S. umbellata on the basis of stamen number and leaf shape.They considered stem tufted, leaves linear to linear-lanceolate and five stamens in S. submbellata while, solitary stem, elliptic leaves and 10 stamens in S. umbellata.These characters, however, are not reliable due to the presence of five stamens and linear-lanceolate leaves in S. umbellata.
Edgeworth described the new species S. subumbellata after distinguishing it from S. umbellata on the basis of seed surface pattern and the presence of fewer bracts.But in his publication he did not mention the total number of bracts present in S. subumbellata.All the abovementioned specimens from India are placed erroneously in the Stellaria irrigua section in the Kew virtual herbarium.Though, Stellaria irrigua is not reported from India till date.In the flora of Pakistan Ghazanfar & Nasir (1986) also mentioned that the S. subumbellata is not different from S. umbellata.Moreover, description of S. subumbellata as per Ghazanfar & Nasir (1986) matches closely with our specimens except granular seeds.Another allied Chinese species S. parviumbellata Y. Z. Zhao contains 2 bracts but differ from species of S. umbellata and S. subumbellata by having pilose stem, ovate-orbicular leaves and fruit slightly longer than persistent sepals.Pusalkar & Singh (2012) have also described S. subumbellata in the Flora of Gangotri National Park as petaliferous or non petaliferous species but in all specimens studied by us petals were absent.All other characters of S. subumbellata described by Pusalkar & Singh (2012) match well with our plant specimens.
After examining plants in nature, studying herbarium specimens and relevant literature (Shishkin 1936;Turczaninow 1842;Shilong & Rabeler 2001;Morton 2005) it is clear that in the western Himalaya this species is erroneously identified as S. subumbellata.After checking herbarium sheets wrongly identified as S. subumbellata housed in DD and BSD herbarium and images of herbarium sheets from K and P herbaria it is concluded here that this species is common in the western Himalaya.
The fate of Edgeworth's S. subumbellata can only be decided after examining bract number and seed surface structure in the specimens from the eastern Himalaya.This examination will make it clear that whether this species was an erroneous identification of S. umbellata or a different and distinct species.

Erroneous identification
Some specimens from Uttarakhand, India housed in BSD (37469,37419,103889) are erroneously identified as Holosteum umbellatum L. whereas H. umbellatum is a very different species of large size forming cluster of leaves at stem base, with distinct petals longer than sepals, and seeds being shield-shaped and minutely bumpy (Ghazanfar & Nasir 1986;Shilong & Rabeler 2001;Sadeghian et al. 2014).

Conclusion
Plants collected during this study and specimens of species from the western Himalaya (housed in DD and BSD herbaria) have 3-7 unequal scarious bracts and smooth seed surface, hence fulfil all the characters of S. umbellata.The species S. umbellata is a new record for the flora of the Himalaya and India.The genus Holosteum is present only in Jammu & Kashmir in India and absent in Uttarakhand.