Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 December 2025 | 17(12): 28148–28150

 

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

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9903.17.12.28148-28150

#9903 | Received 06 May 2025 | Final received 18 July 2025 | Finally accepted 15 December 2025

 

 

Monocarpic plietesial behaviour in Lepidagathis Willd. (Acanthaceae)

 

Rutuja R. Kolte 1 , Rahul D. Prabhukhanolkar 2 , Prabha M. Pillai 3 , Sharad S. Kambale 4 ,

Gunadayalan Gnanasekaran 5  & Malapati K. Janarthanam 6

 

1 The Green Concept-Institute for Carbon Assessments and Restoration Ecology, Dr Ketkar Road, Pune, Maharashtra 411004, India.

2 PG Department of Environmental Science, Govindram Seksaria Science College (Autonomous), Belgaum, Karnataka 590006, India.

3 Surabhi, V Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Kerala 689656, India.

4 Department of Botany, Maratha Vidya Prasarak Samaj’s Arts, Commerce & Science College (Affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune), Tryambakeshwar, Maharashtra 422212, India.

5 Department of Botany, Madras Christian College (Autonomous), Tambaram East, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600059, India.

6 22/404/2, La Oceana Colony (Phase II), Dona Paula, Goa 403004, India.

1 rutuja24kolte@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 pkrahul85@gmail.com, 3 prabha3188@yahoo.com, 4 sharad@mvptryambakcollege.ac.in, 5 gnanasekaran@mcc.edu.in, 6 mkjana@gmail.com

 

 

Editor: Kannan C.S. Warrier, KSCSTE - Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), Peechi, India.          Date of publication: 26 December 2025 (online & print)

 

Citation: Kolte, R.R., R.D. Prabhukhanolkar, P.M. Pillai, S.S. Kambale, G. Gnanasekaran & M.K. Janarthanam (2025). Monocarpic plietesial behaviour in Lepidagathis Willd. (Acanthaceae). Journal of Threatened Taxa 17(12): 28148–28150. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9903.17.12.28148-28150  

  

Copyright: © Kolte 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: RRK is thankful to Rufford organization for supporting part of this work (Rufford small grant reference: 20301-1). SSK thank SPPU, Pune for ASPIRE Research Mentorship Grant. GG is thankful to the SERB (CRG/2020/001605), Government of India, for the financial assistance.

 

 

Lepidagathis clavata Dalzell is a  Critically Endangered  B1ab(iii) endemic species growing on exposed rocky surfaces of the lateritic plateaus in the northern Western Ghats (Dalzell 1850; Kolte & Prabhukhanolkar 2023). In January 2016, during our botanical exploration to the lateritic plateaus of Chaukul from the Sindhudurg District of Maharashtra, we noticed a small patch with few individuals of this species flowering. Based on these live specimens, we published an article with updated description, lectotypification, and colour photo plate (Kolte et al. 2016). Subsequently, at the end of May 2016, we observed that all those flowered individuals dried off after setting seeds and decayed entirely in the monsoon. This field observation kindled our interest to constantly monitor different populations of this species to uncover the probability of a monocarpic pattern of life-cycle. Afterwards, we regularly conducted field trips to the lateritic plateaus (Chaukul from the Sindhudurg District of Maharashtra, Sada, and Chorla [type locality] from the Belgaum District of Karnataka) where this species was reported to be distributed earlier, primarily to understand its phenology.

The gregarious flowering of the entire Chaukul plateaus population was observed in November 2016 for a fortnight (Image 1A,B), followed by a mass setting of seeds and dried off by the end of May 2017 (Image 1C).  Further, it was noticed that by the end of the southwest monsoon, all the old stumps had decayed (Image 1D) and seeds began to germinate. A critical observation of the germination of seeds revealed that this species adopts a vivipary mechanism, which is not hitherto reported in the genus (Image 1D). Whilst, at around the same time, the populations at Chorla and Sada plateaus were predominantly in a vegetative stage with a sporadic flowering in some patches. However, we could observe a synchronized flowering of the Chorla and Sada populations in November 2020. Later, those populations died, decayed, and seeds germinated in the next monsoon in June 2021.

The flowering periodicity of L. clavata was not known until November 2024, when the entire Chaukul population flowered again gregariously after a gap of seven years, which germinated from mass seeding during the 2017 monsoon. Between two gregarious flowerings, every year individuals were growing vegetative in the prostrate form to support their growth on the rocky plateau (Image 1E). As years passed, branch tips started growing erect on the plateau floor. We could also notice the stray flowering in a few individuals.  All the above observations about the phenology of this endemic species confirm that it is a plietesial monocarpic species. This is reported here for the first time in the genus Lepidagathis Willd. The next gregarious flowering of the Chorla and Sada populations is expected in November 2028.

Besides, in the protologues of some of the recently described species such as Lepidagathis mahakassapae S.More et al. and L. ushae Borude et al. found growing on the rocky plateaus have been reported as monocarpic without detailed notes (Borude et al. 2020; More et al. 2022). However, a long-term monitoring of these species including all other Lepidagathis species growing on the lateritic plateaus is essential to understand their phenology as they are the most probable candidates exhibiting monocarpic plietesial behaviour.

 

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References

 

Borude, D.B., P.D. Natekar, K.V.C. Gosavi & A.N. Chandore (2020). Lepidagathis ushae: a new species of Acanthaceae from the lateritic plateaus of the Konkan region, Maharashtra, India. Kew Bulletin 75: 19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12225-020-9878-2

Dalzell, N.A. (1850). Hooker’s Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany vol. 2. London.

Kolte, R.R. & R.D. Prabhukhanolkar (2023). Lepidagathis clavata. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2023. E.T215199522A215199554. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/215199522/215199554. Accessed on 15.iv.2025.

Kolte, R.R., S.S. Kambale, G. Gnanasekaran & M.K. Janarthanam (2016). Rediscovery and lectotypification of Lepidagathis clavata (Acanthaceae), a steno-endemic species from the northern Western Ghats, India. Phytotaxa 265(3): 297–300. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.265.3.13

More, S., S. Kambale, M. Sawant, R. Mane & H. Bhosale (2022). Lepidagathis mahakassapae sp. nov. (Acanthaceae: Barlerieae) from the high elevated Lateritic Plateau of northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India. Nordic Journal of Botany 78(2): 203–212. https://doi.org/10.1111/njb.03345