Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2025 | 17(2): 26566–26570

 

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9271.17.2.26566-26570

#9271 | Received 05 July 2024 | Final received 09 January 2025 | Finally accepted 01 February 2025

 

 

Cuphea carthagenensis (Jacq.) J.F.Macbr. (Lythraceae) — a new non-native plant record for the Eastern Ghats of India

 

Prabhat Kumar Das 1, Bishal Kumar Majhi 2, Shashi Sourav Hansda 3, Samarendra Narayan Mallick 4, Purnendu Panda 5 & Pratap Chandra Panda 6

 

1,6 Centre for Biotechnology, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Kalinga Nagar, Ghatikia, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751003, India.

2 G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment, Northeast Regional Centre, Chandranagar, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh 791113, India.

3 Department of Botany, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751004, India.

4 Department of Botany, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, Odisha 753003, India.

5 Central Ayurveda Research Institute, Bharatpur, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751029, India.

1 prabhatdasnou@gmail.com, 2 bishalkm@gmail.com, 3 shashibabu087@gmail.com, 4 samarendra.mallick1@yahoo.com,

5 pandapurnendu02@gmail.com, 6 pcpanda2001@yahoo.co.in (corresponding author)

 

 

Editor: V. Sampath Kumar, Botanical Survey of India, Coimbatore, India.     Date of publication: 26 February 2025 (online & print)

 

Citation: Das, P.K., B.K. Majhi, S.S. Hansda, S.N. Mallick, P. Panda & P.C. Panda (2025). Cuphea carthagenensis (Jacq.) J.F.Macbr. (Lythraceae) — a new non-native plant record for the Eastern Ghats of India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 17(2): 26566–26570. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9271.17.2.26566-26570

  

Copyright: © Das et al. 2025. 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: None.

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: The authors thank the dean, the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the President, Siksha O Anusandhan Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar for providing laboratory facilities and encouragement.

 

 

During the ongoing plant diversity inventory of the Eastern Ghat region of Odisha, the authors collected specimens from two populations of an interesting species of Cuphea with glandular-pubescent aerial parts and pale-purple to deep pink flowers from Sunabeda Plateau and Pendajam waterfall of Koraput District of Odisha. After examination of plant specimens, consultation of relevant literature, and matching with authentic herbarium specimens, it is identified as Cuphea carthagenensis (Jacq.) J.F.Macbr. (Lythraceae), a species native to South America.

In India, half-a-dozen species of Cuphea P.Browne have so far been reported, such as C. hyssopifolia Kunth, C. carthagenensis (Jacq.) J.F.Macbr., C. ignea A.DC., C. lanceolata W.T.Aiton, C. micropetala Kunth, and C. procumbens Ortega, which are commonly grown as garden ornamental plants or found as alien weeds in waste places, roadsides and degraded forest areas (Das & Chanda 1987; Singh et al. 2000; Paul & Kumar 2023).

Among these, the species C. carthagenensis is so far been reported from northeastern states such as  Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland (Naithani 1990; Naithani & Bennet 1990), Mizoram (Singh et al. 2002), Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal (Paul & Kumar 2012), and Manipur (Panmei et al. 2019) as a naturalized weed in cultivated lands, disturbed habitats and also sometimes in open forests. There is no report of its occurrence in the Eastern Ghats of India, which covers the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka nor from peninsular India. The present report of its occurrence from Odisha is very interesting in view of its naturalization extending to the eastern parts of the country (Image 1).

Cuphea carthagenensis (Jacq.) J.F.Macbr.,Publ. Field Columb. Mus., Bot. Ser. 8: 124. 1930; Naithani, Fl. Pl. India, Nepal & Bhutan: 172. 1990; Naithani & Bennet, Ind. For. 116(5): 423. 1990; Chowdhery & al. in P.K. Hajra & al., Mater.  Fl. Arunachal Pradesh 1: 496. 1996; Paul & Kumar, Pleione 6(1): 244. 2012; Graham, Syst. Bot. 42(4): 876. 2017; T. Mathew & al. in A.A. Mao & S.S. Dash, Fl. Pl. India Annot. Checkl. Dicot 1: 558. 2020; Paul & Kumar, Fl. Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary: 69. 2023. Lythrum carthagenense Jacq., Enum. Syst. Pl. 22. 1760. Cuphea pinto (Vand.) Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 3(3): 96. 1898. Cuphea balsamona Cham. & Schlecht. in Linnaea 2: 363. 1827. Cuphea prunellifolia, FI. Bras. Mer. 3: 108. 1833. (Images 2 & 3)

Common name: Colombian Cuphea, Colombian wax-weed.

Perennial herb, erect or spreading, much branched from near the base, 10–40  cm tall, young parts hairy. Stem viscid-pubescent, with intermixed glandular and non-glandular hairs; trichomes sparse to abundant, erect, reddish-purple. Leaves opposite, spreading, subsessile to shortly petiolate, gradually reduced in size in inflorescence; broadly to narrowly elliptic or elliptic-oblong, rarely ovate, 0.9–3.2 X 0.6–2.0 cm, base acute to attenuate, apex acute or acuminate, margin entire; upper surface green, lower surface pale or both surfaces with scattered trichomes, midvein very prominent, secondary veins 5–6, prominent on dorsal side. Flowers extra axillary, solitary or in an indistinct leafy raceme, 4–6 mm long; pedicels 1–2 mm long; bracteoles lanceolate-linear. Floral tube, including a descending spur, sparsely pubescent with glandular hairs, distally rose-purple, otherwise green, ampullaceous with neck and mouth contracted in fruit. Calyx tubular, 3–5 mm long, longitudinally ribbed with a short spur at the base of posterior side; lobes short, equal, deltate, apex acute or short bristle-tipped. Petals 6, light pink to pink-purple, subequal, oblong, elliptic, or sub-spatulate, up to 3 mm long. Stamens 11, slightly longer than the floral tube; 2 short dorsal most inserted deepest, other 9 alternately unequal in length, inserted at the same level; filaments cream coloured, anthers light yellow. Ovary oblong, 0.5 mm long, glabrous; ovules 4–6; stigma capitate. Capsules enclosed by hypanthium, dehiscing on one side; seeds brownish, 2–6, 1–1.5 mm across, obovate to elliptic or subcircular, apex obtuse to shallowly retuse, margin thin, flattened, especially at micropylar end, surface verrucose.

Flowering and fruiting: February–May.

Distribution: Though the native range of Cuphea carthagenensis is South America covering Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela (Graham 2017), it has widely naturalized outside its native range, in the subtropical and tropical parts Central America, North America, the Caribbean, Oceania, and Asia. In Asia, the species is reported to occur in China, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan. In Oceania, C. carthagenensis is known from American Samoa, Australia, Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Western Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu. While it is a dominant weed of rice fields in Assam, India; it invades corn (Zea mays) plantings in Indonesia, Coconut Cocos nucifera groves in Vanuatu and Taro Colocasia esculenta fields in Fiji (Bradley 2022).

In India, the species has been previously reported from northeastern states (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur), higher hills of Darjeeling in West Bengal, and now from Koraput, Odisha located in the eastern region of the country indicating its spread as an invasive species.

Specimens examined: 2544/CBT, 20.iv.2024, India, Odisha, Koraput, Sunabeda, Central University of Odisha campus, 18.701 N & 83.012 E, 2,112 m, coll. P.K. Das & P.C. Panda; 2545/CBT, 14.v.2024, India, Odisha, Koraput, Pendajam waterfall, on the way to Putsil, 18.739 N & 82.808 E, 1,976 m, coll. P.K. Das and S.N. Mallick.

Specimen images viewed online: 1650 (K), 600 m, coll. M. Etuge, Mt. Kupe, Cameroon (K000026893); 9500 (K), 2,000 m, coll. M. Cheek, Muanenguba, Cameroon (K000026892); 9559 (K), 1,200 m, coll. M. Cheek, Muambong to Mwabag, Cameroon (K000026894).

 

 

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References

 

Bradley, K. (2022). Cuphea carthagenensis (Colombian wax weed), CABI Compendium. CABI, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/cabicompendium.113690. Accessed 24 June 2024.

Das, A.P. & S. Chanda (1987). Flowering calendar of the angiospermic flora of Darjeeling Hills, West Bengal (India). Transactions of the Bose Research Institute 50(4): 99–133.

Graham, S.A. (2017). A revision of Cuphea Section Brachyandra s. s. (Lythraceae). Systematic Botany 42 (4): 859–919. https://doi.org/10.1600/036364417X696528

Naithani, H.B. (1990). Flowering Plants of India, Nepal and Bhutan: Not recorded in Sir J.D. Hooker’s Flora of British India. Surya Publications, Dehra Dun, India, 711 pp.

Naithani, H.B. & S.S.R. Bennet (1990). Note on the occurrence of Cuphea carthagenensis from India. Indian Forester 116(5): 423–424.

Panmei, R., P.R. Gajurel & B. Singh (2019). Ethnobotany of medicinal plants used by the Zeliangrong ethnic group of Manipur, northeast India. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 235: 164–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2019.02.009

Paul, T.K. & A. Kumar (2012). Two new plant records for West Bengal, India from Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, Darjeeling District. Pleione 6(1): 244–246.

Paul, T.K. & A. Kumar (2023). Flora of Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, Darjeeling, West Bengal. Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata, 177 pp.

Singh, N.P., D.K. Singh & K.P. Singh (2002). Flora of Mizoram, Vol. 2. Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata, 649 pp.

Singh, N.P., P. Lakshminarasimhan, S. Karthikeyan & P.V. Prasanna (2000). Flora of Maharashtra State: Dicotyledons, Vol. 2 (Combretaceae to Ceratophyllaceae). Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata, 988 pp.