Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 March 2022 | 14(3): 20792–20797
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6536.14.3.20792-20797
#6536 | Received 07 August 2020 | Final
received 18 November 2021 | Finally accepted 14 March 2022
A new distribution record of Memecylon clarkeanum Cogn. (Melastomataceae) to
Karnataka from Sharavathi river basin, central
Western Ghats, India
Malve Sathisha
Savinaya 1, Jogattappa
Narayana 2, Venkatarangaiah Krishna 3
&
Kalamanji Govindaiah
Girish 4
1,2 Department of P.G. Studies &
Research in Environmental Science, 3 Department of P.G. Studies
& Research in Biotechnology,
Jnana Sahyadri, Kuvempu University, Shankarghatta,
Shivamogga, Karnataka 577451, India.
1,4 Panchavati Research Academy for Nature, Kalamanji, Sagar, Shivamogga,
Karnataka 577421, India.
4 Indira Gandhi Government First
Grade College for Women, Sagar, Shivamogga, Karnataka
577401, India.
1 savimalve@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 janaes@rediffmail.com, 3 krishnabiotech2003@gmail.com,
4 girishjanney@gmail.com
Editor: A.G. Pandurangan,
Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden And Research Institute, Palode, India. Date of
publication: 26 March 2022 (online & print)
Citation: Savinaya,
S.M., J. Narayana, V. Krishna & K.G. Girish (2022). A new distribution record of Memecylon clarkeanum
Cogn. (Melastomataceae)
to Karnataka from Sharavathi river basin, central
Western Ghats, India. Journal of
Threatened Taxa 14(3): 20792–20797. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6536.14.3.20792-20797
Copyright: © Savinaya
et al. 2022. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Department of Biotechnology,
New Delhi under Boost to
University Interdisciplinary Life Science
Departments for Education and Research Programme (DBT-BUILDER) project entitled
“Bio-prospecting of medicinal
plants of Western Ghats, Karnataka”.
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: This research was financially
supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India through
DBT-BUILDER Project (Order No. BT/PR9128/INF/22/190/2013, Dated: 30/06/2015).
We hereby extend our thankfulness to DBT, New Delhi. We thank Kuvempu University for offering facility to carry out
research. We would also like to show our gratitude to Panchavati
Research Academy for Nature (PRANA), an organisation which extended their
assistance of helping hands in the field studies.
Abstract: Memecylon clarkeanum
Cogn., a
vulnerable species, is reported as a new record for Karnataka from primeval
sacred forest, Rameshwara Devarakadu
of Hulkodu village in the region of Sharavathi river basin, Sagar
taluk, Shivamogga district, central Western Ghats. The present discovery
highlights the importance of sacred groves in conserving rare, endangered and
endemic flora. Prior to this, the species was reported as a new record for
India from Kerala in 2012. The present paper illustrates the range extension of
the species further towards northern latitudes up to central Western Ghats,
Karnataka. The study assessed distributional range, habitat, ecology, status of
threat, and vulnerability for planning conservation measures.
Keywords: Conservation, endemic flora,
Karnataka, new report, range extension.
Memecylon L., is one of the largest genera
in the family Melastomataceae. In 1753, Linnaeus
introduced the genus Memecylon with a
description of Memecylon capitellatum from Sri Lanka (Linnaeus, 1753). The genus,
today comprising ca. 352 accepted species distributed in Old World tropics (“Memecylon L. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science,”
2018). The members of Memecylon are
small trees or shrubs and found in habitats ranging from tropical wet evergreen
to semi-evergreen forests and most of them are understory species (Bremer 1981;
Das 2017; Melastomataceae.Net, 2020). Clarke (1879) reported 40 species and 27
varieties of Memecylon for the flora of
British India, whereas, Cooke (1901) recorded five species from the Bombay
presidency and Gamble (1919) reported 18 species from the presidency of Madras
(Clarke 1879; Cooke 1901; Gamble 1919). The digital Flora of Karnataka included
11 species of Memecylon from the state
(Herbarium JCB 2020).The recent study on this genus for India have delimited 53
species of which 26 are endemics to the region (Das 2017).
In 2018, while documenting
angiosperm diversity of Rameshwara Devarakadu, a sacred (Kaanu)
forest at Hulkodu village, Sagara
taluk, Shivamogga district in the region of Sharavathi
river basin, central Western Ghats, the authors have collected a specimen of a Memecylon species. The specimen was
critically examined by referring relevant literature and digital images of type
specimen (Thwaites C.P2468), it was identified as Memecylon
clarkeanum Cogn.
(Saldanha & Ramesh 1984; Ramaswami et al. 2001;
Bhat 2003; “HerbWeb”, 2020). The species was earlier
thought to be an endemic to Sri Lanka until it was reported as a new record for
India from the evergreen forests of Wayanad,
Malappuram and Kozhikode districts of Kerala by Sivu et al. (2012).
Later, Udayavani & Ramachandran (2013) reported
the occurrence of M. clarkeanum from Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. The present collection of this
species from a sacred grove (14.134N and 74.959E, altitude of 640 m) in Sharavathi
river basin constitutes the first authentic record from Karnataka and therefore
reported here as an addition to the flora of Karnataka with full bibliographic
citations, morphological description, ecology, association, phenology, distribution,
and specimens examined with colour photographs of plant to facilitate further
collection, correct identification and conservation. The specimen (KUBPHS150)
is deposited in Biodiversity Laboratory of BUILDER Project, Bio Sciences
Complex, Kuvempu University, Shankarghatta,
Shivamogga, Karnataka. The species has been globally assessed its threat status
and treated it under ‘Vulnerable’ category (World Conservation Monitoring
Centre 1998).
Taxonomic Treatment
Memecylon clarkeanum
Cogn.
in DC. Mon. Phan. 7: 1141. 1891; Trimen,
Handb. Fl. Ceylon 2: 217. 1894; Bremer, Opera. Bot.
50: 24.1979; Dassanayake & Fosberg,
Rev, Handb. Fl. Ceylon 6: 213. f. 3B.1987. M. Heyneanum Benth. in Wall. ex
Wight & Arn. var. latifolia
Clarke in Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 2: 560. 1879. Sivu et al., Taiwania 57(3):
327–330. 2012. Das, Taxonomic Account of
Memecylaceae (Ph.D. Thesis), University of Calcutta.
2017. Type: Sri Lanka: Thwaites C.P. 2468.
Shrubs, 2–2.5m high. Stems up to
4 cm in girth; branchlets subterete; internodes 4–5
cm long; bark shallowly fissured, greyish-brown. Leaves widely elliptic to
lanceolate, 15–20 × 3–6 cm, apex acuminate, base cuneate, margins entire, pale
beneath, glaucous above, coriaceous; midrib raised below, with fairly prominent
intramarginal veins and secondary veins, foliar sclereids
filiform; petioles 7–10 mm long, channelled on upper side. Inflorescence a
fascicle, 2 or 3-flowered, strictly on leafless nodes, sessile; pedicels absent
or shorter than receptacle. Bracts ovate-lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm long, visible
to naked eyes. Flower buds acute in shape; flowers 4–6 mm across, pale blue. Hypantho-calyx campanulate, ca. 2.5 mm across, truncate;
disk rays prominent, raised, yellowish or white. Petals 4, broadly ovate, ca. 4
× 4.5 mm, pale blue, acute at apex. Stamens 8, equal; filaments folded in buds,
slender, ca. 5mm long, whitish-blue; anthers ca. 2 mm long, horse-shoe–shaped,
curved; connectives with a central brown gland. Ovary unilocular with 10–12
ovules; free-central placentation; style subulate, filiform, ca. 5 mm long,
pale bluish-white; stigma pointed. Fruits globose, 8–10mm with persistent calyx
rind, yellow, bluish-black at maturity, 1-seeded.
Distribution
Global distribution: Sri Lanka
and India.
India: Kerala (Kozhikode,
Malappuram, and Wayanad districts), Tamil Nadu (Nilgiri
district), Karnataka (Shivamogga district).
Habitat ecology
Memecylon clarkeanum
Cogn. is recorded
at an altitude range of 640 m in Rameshwara sacred
grove in a semi-evergreen forest in the Sharavathi
river basin, Shivamogga district, Karnataka. The area receives an annual
rainfall of 2,800–3,200 mm and the average temperature ranges 23–25 °C. The
particular habitat is a slope of an undulated mountain terrain covered with
thick canopy of gigantic trees.
Associated species
The associated plant species
commonly found in the habitat are Aporosa lindleyana (Wight) Baill.,
Artocarpus hirsutus Lam.,
Canarium strictum Roxb., Chukrasia tabularis A.Juss., Diospyros
buxifolia (Blume) Hiern,
Holigarna grahamii (Wight)
Kurz, Hopea ponga (Dennst.) Mabb., Ixora brachiata Roxb., Ixora nigricans R. Br. ex Wight & Arn., Knema attenuata (Hook.f. &
Thomson) Warburg, Olea dioica Roxb., Psychotria flavida Talbot, and Syzygium
laetum (Ham.) Gandhi.
Phenology: Flowering starts in the month of
September and continues till November. Fruits can be seen throughout the month
of December and January.
Conservation status: Memecylon clarkeanum
Cogn. is listed
as ‘Vulnerable’ based on the threat factor (A1c) (World Conservation Monitoring
Centre 1998).
Notes
The present record confirmed the
range extension of the species from south to north and distributed up to central
Western Ghats in Karnataka which deserves phytogeographical significance.
Further its occurrence in sacred groves is a testimony that signifies the
importance of age old practice of conserving representatives of past vegetation
in the name of sacred forests which have immense biodiversity values for
humanity.
The Rameshwara
Devarakadu is a community forest of Hulkodu village where indigenous communities make use of
forest green leaves for various agricultural purposes. Though, a season based
green leaves collection by pruning tree branches was followed, the understory
shrubs often get affected due to falling of woody branches during the course of
collection knowingly or unknowingly. The authors identified only two
individuals, of which only one plant is in reproductive stage. Since they occur
near areca plantations, there is severe threat of anthropogenic pressure.
Therefore, strict conservation of sacred groves should be followed under the
guidance of the state forest department and regular monitoring must be done
with the support of the local indigenous communities.
Specimen examined: KUBPHS150, 01.iv.2018, India,
Karnataka, Shivamogga district, Sagar taluk, Hulkodu village, Rameshwara devarakadu (Sacred grove), Sharavathi
river basin, central Western Ghats, Savinaya M.S.
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