Endemic orchids of peninsular India: a review
Jeewan Singh Jalal 1 & J.
Jayanthi 2
1,2 Botanical
Survey of India, Western Regional Centre, 7, Koregaon Road, Pune, Maharashtra
411001, India
Email: 1 jeewansinghjalal@rediffmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 jayanthi.bsi@gmail.com
Date of publication (online): 26
December 2012
Date of publication (print): 26
December 2012
ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893
(print)
Editor: Pankaj Kumar
Manuscript details:
Ms # o3091
Received 04 February 2012
Final received 19 October 2012
Finally accepted 28 October 2012
Citation: Jalal, J.S. & J. Jayanthi (2012). Endemic orchids of
peninsular India: a review. Journal of Threatened Taxa4(15): 3415–3425.
Copyright: © Jeewan Singh Jalal & J. Jayanthi 2012. Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use
of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and
distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of
publication.
Acknowledgements: The authors are thankful to Dr. Paramjith Singh, Director, Botanical Survey of India for providing facilities and
support. The authors are also thankful to Dr. D.K. Singh, Additional Director, Botanical Survey of India for encouragement.
Abstract:The present analysis of endemic orchids shows a total account of 130
species belonging to 38 genera in peninsular India. Of these, 43 are terrestrial, 85
epiphytic and two holomycotrophic (saprophytic). The Western Ghats comprises of 123
endemic orchid species, Deccan Plateau has 29 endemic orchid species and
Eastern Ghats has 22 endemic orchid species. However, in the present analysis the
number of endemic species is reduced from the earlier reports because of the
rapid development in the taxonomic explorations in the neighboring
countries. As a result, many
species were found to show extended distribution.
Key words: Deccan Plateau, endemic, Eastern Ghats,
orchids, peninsular India, Western Ghats.
For
figures, images, tables -- click here
Orchidaceae is one of the
most ecologically and morphologically diverse families of flowering plants. It is the second largest family of
flowering plants in the world, comprising of about 779 genera and 22,500
species (Mabberley 2008). They have
diverse habits with variously modified vegetative and floral structures. Based on their varying habits, orchids
are classified as holomycotrophic or saprophytic (growing on dead and decaying
matter), terrestrials (growing on ground) and epiphytic (growing on trees or
shrubs). They are very sensitive to
habitat degradation and fragmentation. In India, the orchid diversity is represented by 1,331 species belonging
to 186 genera (Misra 2007).
The Indian subcontinent has
diverse climatic regimes, forest types and habitat conditions that provides a favourable environment for accommodating diverse
life forms and species. Being
separated by high mountain ranges of the Himalaya in the north and in the south
by Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean, the isolation of Indian flora
to a large extent helps in the evolution of endemic taxa (Nayar 1996). Geologically the drifting of the Indian
subcontinent from the Gondwanaland through various latitudes lead to
immigration and extinction of species which are
engraved in the present day floristic composition (Axelrod 1971). The endemism in the flora of a country
or geographical region provides an important insight into the biogeography of
that region and also to the centers of diversity and adaptive
evolution of the floristic components of that region (Nayar 1996). In India, the peninsular region has a
high degree of endemism making it the second richest endemic centre after the
Himalaya. Nayar (1977) surmised,
the history of flora of peninsular India is one of the floristic
impoverishments due to flow of Deccan lavas during cretaceous-eocene time and
spreading aridity in Miocene-quaternary period, causing depletion of its
characteristic flora leaving few relict taxa. The peninsular region is a part of
Indian plate of Gondwanaland and most of the endemic plants of this region are
palaeoendemics. A large
concentration of endemic species is found in the tropical moist deciduous and
tropical semievergreen patches of Western Ghats and to a much lesser degree in
Eastern Ghats (Nayar 1996).
Materials and Methods
Peninsular India comprises
of seven states viz., Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha and Tamil
Nadu and one union territory namely Pondicherry. It is bound by Vindhyan Mountains in the
north, Arabian Sea in the west, Indian Ocean in the south and Bay of Bengal in
the east. The geography of the region
can be divided into three zones namely the Deccan Plateau, Eastern Ghats and
the Western Ghats (Image 1). The
Deccan Plateau is the largest plateau in India, making up the majority of the
southern part of the country. Eastern Ghats forms a broken chain of hill ranges extending through the
states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil
Nadu. It runs north-eastto south-west direction in peninsular India. Western Ghats starts near the border of
Gujarat and Maharashtra, south of the Tapti River and runs approximately 1600km
through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala ending
at Kanyakumari. It is also one of
the 34 Biodiversity Hotspots of the world (Myers et al. 2000). The vegetation type of peninsular India
varies from tropical evergreen forest, tropical semievergreen forests, sholas, moist deciduous forests, dry deciduous forests,
scrub jungles and dry savannah forests.
For the present analysis
information on the endemic orchids of peninsular region was collected from
literature such as Hooker (1888–1890), Blatter (1928), Fischer (1928),
Cooke (1958), Santapau & Kapadia (1966), Saldanha & Nicolson (1976),
Pradhan (1976), Bose & Bhattacharjee (1980), Yoganarasimhan et al. (1981),
Nayar et al. (1984), Rathakrishnan & Chitra (1984), Rao (1986, 1998),
Joseph (1987), Ahmedullah & Nayar (1987), Chandrabose & Nair (1988),
Manilal (1988), Henry et al. (1989), Ansari & Balakrishnan (1990),
Keshavamurthy & Yoganarasimhan (1990), Kumar & Manilal (1994),
Lakshminarasimhan (1996), Nayar (1996), Pullaiah (1997), Karthikeyan (2000),
Gopalan & Henry (2000), Mishra & Singh (2001), Singh et al. (2001),
Kumar et al. (2001), Yadav & Sardesai (2002), Rao & Kumari (2003),
Manilal & Kumar (2004), Sardesai & Yadav (2004), Joshi &
Janarthanam (2004), Gaikwad & Yadav (2004), Misra (2007), Misra et al.
(2008), Nayar et al. (2008), Bachulkar (2010) and Narayanan et al. (2010). The online databases, namely, Govaerts
et al. (2012) http://apps. Kew.org/wcsp, Tropicos (2012) www.tropicos.org, IPNI
(2012) www.ipni.org, eFloras (2012) www.efloras.orgwere also consulted for recent updates on the plant names and
distribution. Species earlier
recorded as endemic but now reported from the other parts of the world, were
excluded from the current list and their nomenclatural changes were also
updated. The endemic orchid species
are listed based on phytogeographical regions and state-wise distribution is
also provided. The present work is
our modest attempt to give an up-to date account of the endemic orchids of the peninsular
region and to include nomenclature changes, new distributional records and new
species records.
Results
Ahmedullah & Nayar (1987)
brought out the first authentic work on the endemic plants of peninsular India
and estimated 123 species and 33 genera of endemic orchids from this
region. While Nayar (1996)
estimated 136 species, later on Kumar & Manilal (1994) recorded 142 species
belonging to 38 genera. Further,
Rao (1998) estimated 126 endemic species. Singh et al. (2001) recorded 135
species and Misra (2007) recorded 160 species. So far the total endemic orchids
in India are 404 (2.3%) (Misra 2007) out of 17,500 total flowering plants,
peninsular India represents 39.6% of endemic orchids out of 1,331 total number of orchids.
The present analysis resulted
with a total of 130 species belonging to 38 genera endemic to peninsular India
(Table 1). Of these, 43 are
terrestrial, 85 are epiphytic and two are
holomycotrophic. The analysis shows
that the genus Habenaria (25 spp.), Oberonia (17 spp.), Bulbophyllum(15 spp.), Dendrobium (11 spp.) and Eria (6 spp.), are among the
species rich genera representing nearly 60% of total endemic orchids of
peninsular India. The Western Ghats
region has maximum 123 endemic orchid species followed by Deccan Plateau and then Eastern Ghats (Fig.
1). Of the total endemic orchid
species of the peninsular region, 95 (73%) are strict endemics to Western Ghats
and five species (4%) are restricted to Eastern Ghats. However, there are no strict endemic
species in the Deccan Plateau (Fig. 1). A state wise analysis of distribution of endemic orchids shows that
Kerala has a maximum number of endemic species followed by Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka and Maharashtra. The
states of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha show very poor representation of
the endemic species (Fig. 2). A
total of 27 orchid species earlier considered as endemic to the peninsular
region are excluded from the list owing to their extended distribution in the
neighbouring countries (Table 2).
Discussion
Endemic taxa occur in a
restricted area usually isolated by geographical or temporal barriers
(Ahmedullah & Nayar 1987). The
endemic taxa occurring in such isolated/restricted areas are possible survivors
of their ancient stock that occurred in continental areas
which were subjected to cataclysmic geological and climatic changes
(Nayar 1996). The major
concentrations of endemic orchid species are found in the Western Ghats
(Subramanayam & Nayar 1974). Agasthyamalai Hills, Anamalai-High Ranges, Nilgiris-Silent
Valley-Waynad-Kodagu region, Shimoga-Kanara, Mahabaleswar-Khandala and
Konkan-Raigad are some of the important centers of endemism in the Western
Ghats. Ninety
five endemic orchid species are particularly restricted to these
areas. Eastern Ghats have
geological antiquity with isolated mountain ranges. The Eastern Ghats havesome “ecological islands” that harbor endemic orchids. These are Ganjam-Koraput range in
Odisha, Visakhapatnam Hills, Nallamalai-Cuddappah range and Tirupati Hills of
Andhra Pradesh. Though Eastern
Ghats possess a few rich forest patches, it has been poorly explored
floristically as compared to Western Ghats. Eria
meghasaniensis (S. Misra) S. Misra, Habenaria panigrahiana S. Misra, Habenaria
panigrahiana var. parviloba S. Misra, Odisha cleistantha S.
Misra and Zeuxine lindleyana A.N. Rao are
strictly endemic to Odisha State. Aerides
maculosa Lindl., Bulbophyllum kaitiense (Wight)
Rchb.f., Dendrobium aqueum Lindl., Dendrobium ovatum (L.)
Kraenzl., Eulophia ochreata Lindl., Habenaria crassifolia A.
Rich., Habenaria foliosa A. Rich., Habenaria grandifloriformisBlatt. & McCann, Habenaria hollandiana Santapau, Habenaria
rariflora A. Rich., Oberonia brunoniana Wight,Oberonia proudlockii King & Pantl., Oberonia santapauiKapadia, Oberonia verticillata Wight and Schoenorchis jerdoniana(Wight) Garay have very wide distribution in the peninsular region.
The endemic orchids of the
peninsular region are facing various kinds of localized threats like livestock
grazing and forest fires as well as landscape-level threats such as mining,
construction of roads, large as well as micro-hydal power projects, wind farms,
large-scale agricultural expansion and creation of monoculture
plantations. To cite an example Paphiopedilum
druryi (Bedd.) Stein. which was once found in
plenty in Agastyamalai Hills in southern India is now difficult to locate.
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