In news- A new plant of the Brachystelma R.Br. genus has been found in Tumkur, Karnataka.
More information-
- It has been named after the district Tumkur, from where its type material was collected.
- ‘B. tumakurense’ comes from a tuber and belongs to the Apocynaceae family (a family of flowering plants).
- Brachystelma R.Br. is the second largest genus in the tribe Ceropegieae with over 116 species distributed in the old-world tropics.
- They are slender stemmed with a brilliant display of colours in their flowers, especially in their corolla and coronal structures.
- They are mainly distributed in Peninsular India in dry hill ranges.
- There are seven species from Karnataka, where all of them exhibit erect stems and are non-climbing in nature.
- The flowering season is from June to July and fruiting from August to September.
- The species is a lesser known plant and has pollen similar to orchids.
- The tubers are edible in nature.
Source: The Hindu
