Journal of
Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October 2025 | 17(10):
27771–27776
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9634.17.10.27771-27776
#9634 | Received 20 January 2025 | Final received 22 September 2025 |
Finally accepted 06 October 2025
The rediscovery of Strobilanthes parryorum C.E.C.Fisch.,
1928 (Asterids:
Lamiales: Acanthaceae)
in Mizoram, India
Lucy Lalawmpuii 1 , Renthlei
Lalnunfeli 2 , Paulraj
Selva Singh Richard 3 ,
Pochamoni Bharath Simha Yadav 4 , Subbiah Karuppusamy 5 & Kholhring Lalchhandama 6
1,6 Department of Life Sciences, Pachhunga University College, Aizawl, Mizoram 796005,
India.
2,3 Department of Botany, Madras
Christian College (Autonomous), Tambaram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600059, India.
4,5 Department of Botany, The Madura
College (Autonomous), Madurai, Tamil Nadu 625011, India.
1 lucykjhaznich@gmail.com, 2 felirenthlei@gmail.com,
3 ssrichard2001@gmail.com, 4 bharathpochamoni@gmail.com,
5 ksamytaxonomy@gmail.com, 6 chhandama@pucollege.edu.in
(corresponding author)
Editor: D.S. Rawat, G.B. Pant University
of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, India. Date of publication: 26 October 2025
(online & print)
Citation: Lalawmpuii, L., R.
Lalnunfeli, P.S.S. Richard, P.B.S. Yadav, S. Karuppusamy & K. Lalchhandama
(2025). The rediscovery of Strobilanthes
parryorum C.E.C.Fisch., 1928 (Asterids: Lamiales: Acanthaceae) in
Mizoram, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 17(10): 27771–27776. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9634.17.10.27771-27776
Copyright: © Lalawmpuii 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: DBT-BUILDER Scheme of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India (BT/INF/22/SP41398/2021).
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgments: The authors are grateful to John R.I. Wood, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK, for confirming the identification of the species. Dipankar Borah and Ashutosh Sharma rendered invaluable assistance in the identification.
Abstract: Strobilanthes parryorum C.E.C.Fisch. was
originally described in 1928 from Mizoram (erstwhile Lushai
Hills), northeastern India, with a brief description of the flowers, leaves,
and stem. Except for a few collections made by Parry in 1927 & 1928, there
are no additional specimens recorded in India. New specimens were rediscovered
after 96 years in Ailawng, a village some 200 km from
Darzo, the type locality. With new herbarium
specimens, live images, and scanning electron microscopy, a more detailed
description is provided for better understanding of the species. Based on the
rarity, sparse distribution, and limited collections of this species, and no
evaluation for threat status to date, the species can be placed in the ‘Data
Deficient’ category of IUCN Red List.
Keywords: Ailawng,
description, flora, Indo-Burma hotspot, IUCN Red List, northeastern India, rare
species.
The genus Strobilanthes Blume comprises
small gregarious flowering plants and is the second-largest in the family Acanthaceae, next to Justicia
L. (Wood & Scotland 2021). Currently, 466 valid species are recognised globally under the genus (POWO 2025a). Despite
its high species richness, the genus is almost entirely restricted to tropical
& subtropical Asia, and primarily thrives in the monsoon climate of hill
forests (Wood et al. 2021). In India, it is represented by approximately 155
species (Albertson & Venu 2023), distributed
across two major regions — the central and southern parts of peninsular India,
which host about 65 species, and the Himalaya, and northeastern hills, where
around 85 species are recorded (Karthikeyan et al. 2009; Thomas et al. 2020;
Wood et al. 2021; Borah et al. 2025). Over 86 species are known to be endemic
to India, with most of them distributed in two diversity centers, i.e., the
peninsular India and northeastern India (Albertson & Venu
2023). Due to their plietesial pattern of
reproduction, flowering gregariously after many years and then die, many of
them are rare or already extinct, for which their comprehensive documentation
is a persistent problem (Wood & Scotland 2009).
The remotest part in northeastern India, Mizoram, is the only state that
is enclaved, and demarcated by two international borders, of Bangladesh and
Myanmar. It is geologically part of the Arakan-Yoma
mountain formation of the Indo-Myanmar range, which was formed during the
tectonic collision of the Indian, and Eurasian plates (Soibam
et al. 2015; Khin et al. 2022). It, thus, constitutes
the main landmass connecting mainland India and southeastern Asia (Sawant et
al. 2017). Its ecological classification is therefore variously described as
within the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot (Rai 2012) or the eastern Himalaya
(Banerjee et al. 2022).
Cecil Ernest Claude Fischer of the Indian Forest Service and later of
the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, was the first to systematically document the
flora of Mizoram (Fischer 1928a). By 1938, he was able to identify 20 taxa of Strobilanthes (Fischer 1938), to which the
flora of the state adds only another four species (Sinha et al. 2012). In May
1928, Fischer described Strobilanthes parryorum C.E.C.Fisch.
based on herbarium specimens collected by Mrs A.D.
Parry (Fischer 1928b; POWO 2025b), who found the plants in March 1927 at Darzo (22.932o N, 92.956o E), then a tribal
chieftaincy in Lushai Hills, the provincial name of
Mizoram under British Colony.
During floristic explorations in Mizoram, India, in November 2024, the
first author collected several plant specimens at Ailawng
(23.684o N, 92.632o E), a village north of Darzo (Image 1). After identifying the different plants,
some evidently of the genus Strobilanthes,
were not easily identifiable at the level of species (Image 2). They were examined using
taxonomic records, and after critical study, the specimens were identified as S.
parryorum by comparison with the type sheets
housed at Kew (catalogue numbers K000883146 and K000883147), and the recent
account available in Flora of India Volume 20 (Albertson & Venu 2023). Parry collected the initial set of specimens
from the Lushai Hills during July 1927 and also in
March 1928. These specimens were deposited at the Royal Botanic Garden
herbarium, Kew. Later, it was collected by M.S. Khan in 1965 (Collection No.
1122) from Chittagong Hills, Bangladesh, which he deposited at the Royal
Botanic Garden Herbarium, Edinburgh. In India, no additional specimens are
available anywhere, including ASSAM (BSI, Eastern Regional Centre, Shillong), MH, CAL, BSD, and RHT. Photographs were taken
using a Canon EOS R10 camera, a scanning electron micrograph of the pollen
using Hitachi TM4000Plus II, and the location map generated with ArcGIS 10.8.
Herbarium specimens were prepared, and a voucher specimen (LC 001/MCCH) was
deposited in the Herbarium of the Department of Botany, Madras Christian
College, Tambaram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The description of pollen
morphology was based on terminologies established by Erdtman
(1952) and Punt et al. (2007). This collection represents the first confirmed
record of the species in 96 years, highlighting its extreme rarity in the wild.
Notably, it is also the first documentation of the species near its type
locality since its original discovery in 1927 (GBIF 2023).
Results And Discussion
Strobilanthes parryorum C.E.C.Fisch. Bull.
Misc. Inform. Kew 1928(4): 141–147. 1928; Karthikeyan et al., Fl. Pl. India 1:
55. 2009; Albertson & Venu, Fl. India 20: 699.
2023.
Type: India, Mizoram, Darzo, alt 1,250 m,
01.iii.1927, Parry A.D. 155, K000883146, K000883147.
Description: Erect subshrub, up to 2.5 m high. Stem quadrangular,
sulcate, subterete when mature, pubescent or
glabrescent, base woody, young shoots green in color, brown when old, lenticellate, profusely branched; leaf scar persistent at
nodes, swollen above nodes, pubescent. Leaves petiolate, opposite, and
decussate, anisophyllous, elliptic to ovate, 7–28 ×
2–12 cm, base attenuate, decurrent into petiole, margin serrate, apex
acuminate, cystoliths numerous, hispid on the upper
surface, lateral veins 6–12 pairs, impressed above, raised beneath; petiole
1–10 cm long, green, slightly bulging at the base, pubescent; inflorescence
terminal or axillary, 8–29 cm long, cyme, branched at base, rachis densely
covered with brown, and white glandular hairs; bracts sessile, spathulate to
obtuse, 1–2.5 cm long, covered with brown, and white trichomes, pale green with
pink at the apex, prominent ridge in the middle; bracteoles linear to
lanceolate, 1–2 cm, apex obtuse to rounded, pale green, covered with trichomes,
ridge in the middle; calyx bilabiate, five lobed, lobes linear to lanceolate,
1–2 cm long, subequal, two lower free, three upper fused in the middle, covered
with brown, and white trichomes, white, pale green at the apex; corolla pale
yellow, tubular, slightly swollen on one side, 4.5–5 cm long, slightly curved,
tube widens from base, corolla mouth 1–1.5 cm wide, open, five lobed, subequal,
0.5–1 cm × 0.5–0.8 mm, glabrous, white; throat pale yellow, densely covered
with trichomes on outer surface, and long white hairs on inner surface, brown
striations present on inner surface; four stamens, didynamous,
inserted, longer filament 7–8 mm, short filament 2.5–3.5 mm long, villous
throughout; anther linear, 4–5 mm long, bithecate;
style filiform, covered with trichomes, 3–3.6 cm long; stigma linear, simple,
glabrous; ovary 4–4.5 mm long, apex pubescent, two locular with two ovules in
each locule; capsule elliptic to clavate, 1.5–2 cm
long, dark brown, glabrous; four seeds, suborbicular, 4–4.5 × 4–4.2 mm, hairy,
dark brown, mucronate at the apex. Pollen in monads, radially symmetrical, isopolar, amb circular; P: 35–37
µm, E: 27 µm; P/E ratio: 1.16, subprolate; three colporate, colpus linear
elliptic, compital membrane scabrate,
endoaperture (os) elliptic
and longitudinally elongated; pseudocolpi nine,
linear, often coalescent at poles; sexine of 12
longitudinal ribs or bands with ladder-like reticulum, lumen perforate to
micro-reticulate (Image 3A–T).
Wood & Scotland (2003) argued that, based on the available herbarium
specimens, S. parryorum could be considered as
subspecies of S. denticulata (Nees) T.Anderson
(Anderson 1867). Notable differences from S. denticulata
and other species were discernible, including larger bracts and the number of
calyx lobes (3 in S. denticulata). In
addition, their distribution does not coincide as S. denticulata
is endemic to Meghalaya, and Nagaland.
Flowering and fruiting occur from October to January.
Ecology: Strobilanthes parryorum is associated with Abelmoschus
moschatus Medik, Allophylus cobbe
(L.) Raeusch., S. glomerata
(Nees) T.Anderson,
S. capitata (Nees) T.Anderson, Coix lacryma-jobi L., Commelina
sp., Impatiens tripetala Roxb.
ex DC., Eupatorium cannabinum L., Hoya griffithii Hook.f at the
collection site.
Distribution: India — Mizoram, Darzo, Chhingchhip, Phawngpui, Serkawn, Ailawng (Figure 2);
Bangladesh — Chittagong Hills.
Specimen examined: India, Mizoram, Ailawng,
altitude 1,221 m, 16 November 2024, Lalawmpuii, LC
001/MCCH (Madras Christian College Herbarium).
Conservation status
There has been no evaluation to assess the conservation status of S. parryorum. In addition to Darzo,
Parry had noted specimens from Chhingchhip, Phawngpui, and Serkawn (Wood
& Scotland, 2003), all places adjacent to Darzo. Ailawng is the farthest place of the plant’s distribution
where fewer than 35 mature individuals were found. It is thus evident that the
species is strictly endemic to the northeastern region of the Indian
subcontinent. Considering the time span of the rediscovery and small extent of
occurrence, based on the IUCN Red List, S. parryorum
is best designated as ‘Data Deficient’ (DD).
For
images - - click here for full PDF
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