Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 March 2022 | 14(3): 20805–20807
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7591.14.3.20805-20807
#7591 | Received 27 July 2021 | Final
received 10 January 2022 | Finally accepted 24 February 2022
Tribulus ochroleucus (Maire) Ozenda
& Quezel (Zygophyllaceae)
- a new addition to the flora of India
K. Ravikumar 1, Umeshkumar Tiwari 2, Balachandran Natesan 3 & N. Arun
Kumar 4
1,4 Centre for Conservation of
Natural Resources, The University of Trans-disciplinary Health Sciences and
Technology (TDU), Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions
(FRLHT), No. 74/2, Jarakabande Kaval, Attur Post, Yelahanka Via, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560064,
India.
2 Technical Section, Director
office, Botanical Survey of India, DF block 5th floor, CGO Complex Salt Lake,
Kolkata, West Bengal 700064, India.
3 Ecology Department, French
Institute of Pondicherry, 11, St Louis Street,
White Town, Puducherry 605001, India.
1 ravikumarfrlht@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 tigerumesh11@gmail.com, 3 nbala_plant@yahoo.co.in,
4 narun@tdu.edu.in
Editor: Mandar Nilkanth
Datar, MACS-Agharkar
Research Institute, Pune, India. Date of publication: 26
March 2022 (online & print)
Citation: Ravikumar, K., U. Tiwari, B. Natesan & N.A. Kumar (2022). Tribulus ochroleucus (Maire) Ozenda
& Quezel (Zygophyllaceae)
- a new addition to the flora of India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 14(3): 20805–20807. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7591.14.3.20805-20807
Copyright: © Ravikumar 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: The Ministry
of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), New
Delhi Centre for Excellence Scheme.
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The authors are thankful to Shri.
Darshan Shankar, vice-chancellor of TDU-FRLHT for the facilities and late Shri.
D.K. Ved, IFS (Retd.) for
constant support and encouragements; Ministry of Environment & Forests and
Climate Change, Government of India, New Delhi for the financial support under CoE project.
The Foundation for Revitalisation
of Local Health Tradition (FRLHT) is an NGO that is recognized as Centre of
Excellence (CoE) for Medicinal plants and Traditional
Knowledge used in Indian Systems of Medicine by the Ministry of Environment and
Forest (MoEF), Government of India, New Delhi. As
part of this project, National Herbarium of Medicinal Plants used in Indian
System of Medicine (ISM) was established. To accomplish the mission of the
national herbarium, in-house botanical team undertakes field survey in various
bio-geographic zones of the country to collect medicinal plants and house them
in FRLHT herbarium (FRLH). As part of this program, surveys were undertaken in Sirohi, Chittorgarh, Ajmer, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, and Pokhran
Districts of Rajasthan to collect semi-arid region specific species. One Tribulus species collected during the survey was not
matching to any of the State floras published by Sharma & Tiagi (1979), Singh (1983), Shetty & Pandey (1983),
Bhandari (1990), Shetty & Singh (1987, 1991, 1993), Singh & Singh
(2006), and Tiagi & Aery
(2007). Later, after a thorough scrutiny with Ghafoor (1974), Maire (1933);
Ahmad & Mohamed (2005), and referring the herbarium specimens of Dr. R.C.J.E. Maire in central Sahara, 1939 (catalogue no.
MPU367347) it was identified and confirmed as Tribulus
ochroleucus (Maire) Ozenda
& Quezel. There are 42 collections of Tribulus ochroleucus
(Maire) Ozenda & Quézel
on GBIF , collected from Niger, Libya, Algeria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia from the
year 1928 to 2006. Therefore, it forms a new record to India, collected for the
first time from Rajasthan. Hence it is provided here with the correct name,
description, specimens examined, phenology, distribution, notes, and ecology.
The voucher specimens are
deposited at the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions
Herbarium (FRLH), Bengaluru. As far as genus Tribulus
is concerned, Thomas (2006) mentions that there are six species and one variety
occurring in India whereas Singh & Singh (1997) reported five species and
two varieties for India.
Tribulus ochroleucus
(Maire) Ozenda & Quezel
in Ozenda,
Quézel. In: Trav. L’lnst. Recherehes Sahariennes 14: 74.
1956. (Zygophyllaceae).
Type: Sahara centralis, Mouydir Oued Arak, Maire 284.
Tribulus macropterus var. ochroleucus Maire
in Ozenda, Quézel. Trav. L’lnst. Recherehes Sahariennes 14: 74. 1956.
T. ochroleucus var. perplexans
(Maire) Ozenda & Quézel
in Ozenda, Quézel. Trav. L’lnst. Recherehes Sahariennes 14: 75. 1956.
T. macropterus subsp. serolei
Maire in Diagn. Pl. Orient. 1: 161 1843.
Herbs decumbent, semi-erect or
erect. Stems many, terete, pilose, arising from the rootstock. Leaves 2.5–4 cm
long, opposite, unequal, the larger one with seven pairs of leaflets, the
smaller one with 5 pairs of leaflets. Leaflets 4–8 x 1.5–3 mm, sessile or subsessile, oblique, oblong-ovate, acute, densely villous
beneath, sparingly pubescent or glabrous when mature
on upper surface. Stipules 3–4 x 0.5–1 mm, ovate to linear, densely pilose.
Buds ovoid, densely silky villous. Flowers axillary to solitary; pedicels 5–15
mm long, sparsely to densely villous. Sepals 5, ovate-lanceolate, subequal, 4–6
x 1–2 mm, acute, villous outside, pubescent inside. Petals 5, broadly obovate
to ovate, truncate at apex, glabrous, yellow; stamens
8–10; filaments ca. 2.5 mm long; anthers ca. 1 mm long, ovate-oblong,
yellow. Ovaries ca. 1 mm long. Styles sessile or subsessile,
ca. 1 mm long, cylindrical; stigma pyramidal. Schizocarps breaking into 4–5
mericarps, 4–5 subequally lobed, up to 7 mm across,
densely hispid, with many long white hairs and many scattered short white
hairs, devoid of spines or wings, pyramidal-ovoid. (Image
1).
Specimen examined: 117458 (FRLH),
19/8/2014, Near Harchand Kidani
on SH-65, Jaisalmer District, Rajasthan, 26.388 N, 71.803 E, alt. 236 m, coll.
K. Ravikumar, N. Balachandran & Umeshkumar
Tiwari.
Flowering: August; Fruiting:
September–October.
Global Distribution: Afghanistan,
Algeria, Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, India (northwestern
Rajasthan), Iran, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, northern Africa, Oman, Pakistan,
Palestine, Sinai, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
Ecological notes: This plant is
found associated with herbs such as Aristida
hystricula Edgew., Bergia capensis L.,
Boerhavia erecta L.,
Cenchrus sp. Cistanche
tubulosa (Schenk) Wight ex Hook.f.,
Cleome brachycarpa Vahl
ex DC., Cleome pallida Kotschy, Cleome gynandra L., Cyperus
arenarius Retz., Dactyloctenium
scindicum Boiss., Digera muricata
(L.) Mart., Dipcadi erythraeum
Webb & Berthel., Enneapogon
elegans (Nees ex Steud.) Stapf, Euploca rariflora
(Stocks) Diane & Hilger., Fagonia
schweinfurthii (Hadidi)
Hadidi, Farsetia hamiltonii Royle, Glinus lotoides L.,
Heliotropium strigosum
var. brevifolium (Wall.) C.B.Clarke,
Indigofera linnaei
Ali, Kohautia aspera (B.Heyne ex Roth) Bremek., Mollugo cerviana
(L.) Ser., Phyllanthus species, Polygala abyssinica
R.Br. ex Fresen., Portulaca
oleracea L., Pulicaria crispa (Forssk.) Oliv., Solanum albicaule Kotschy ex Dunal, Tribulus alatus Drège ex C.Presl, Tribulus terrestris
L., and Zygophyllum
simplex L.
Other associated trees and shrubs
include Calotropis procera
(Aiton) W.T. Aiton, Capparis decidua (Forssk.)
Edgew., Leptadenia
pyrotechnica (Forssk.) Decne., Prosopis cineraria (L.) Druce,
Salvadora oleoides
Decne. and Ziziphus
sp.
Tribulus ochroleucus
(Maire) Ozenda & Quezel is
comparatively less common than T. terrestris L.
It can be easily recognized in the field by its semi-erect habit and 4–5 subequally lobedschizocarps
without any wings or spines. It can be found growing in grey brown desert soil
that is mixed with red and yellow soil. T. ochroleucus
(Maire) Ozenda & Quezel
is closely allied to T. mollis Ehrenb. ex Schweinf. but differs
in entire plant and the fruit does not have prominently silky hair.
References
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272.
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& A.H. Mohamed (2005). A Taxonomic Study of the Genus Tribulus L.
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