Question – Recently a new plant species named ‘Crotalaria lamelliformis’ has been discovered in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. In which international magazine was this discovery published?
(a) Discovery of Species
(b) Phytotaxa
(c) Andhra Times
(d) The Hindu
Answer – (b)
Related facts
- Recently(March 2021) a new plant species named ‘Crotalaria lamelliformis’ has been discovered in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.
- This discovery was published in the ‘Phytotaxa’, an International magazine.
Researchers
- During their field study, botanists P. Sivaramakrishna and P. Yugandhar from Sri Venkateswara University and Lalji Singh, Scientist-E from the Botanical Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar regional centre, came across the species growing in the pasture lands in Sadasivakona.
- After a critical investigation from July 2018 to November 2020, they found it to be a new species.
Characteristics
- Named as ‘Crotalaria lamelliformis’, the ascending herb is unique for its distinct features such as adpressed white hairs beneath the lower surface of leaves, inflorescence short-terminal racemes, 6-8 bright yellow flowers, unequal calyx lobes, anterior two sepals fused and standard petal sub-orbicular with short claw surrounded by white cottony hairs.
- The discovery of Crotalaria lamelliformis is an addition to the existing 116 species from India.
- Diversity of Crotalaria species is mostly confined to the peninsular India region