Guwahati: A rare purple-blue alpine flower, last collected in India by legendary British botanist Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1867 in Sikkim, has been rediscovered after 158 years by the scientists of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) in Arunachal Pradesh.BSI stated, Dr Sudhansu Sekhar Dash, Dr Subhajit Lahiri, and Monalisa Das “have rediscovered the rare alpine species Cyananthus hookeri CB Clarke after an extraordinary gap of 158 years” at Chuna Valley in Tawang district.“This is the first confirmed record from Arunachal Pradesh and the first collection in India since 1867, highlighting the immense botanical wealth of the Eastern Himalaya and reinforcing the importance of continued exploration and conservation of India’s fragile alpine ecosystems,” BSI added.The findings were published in the international conservation journal Oryx last month. “Cyananthus hookeri was described from Wallanchoon, eastern Nepal, in 1912. It occurs throughout the eastern Himalayas, in Bhutan, China, India and Tibet, but with a restricted distribution. We searched Indian and other herbaria and located only two collections from India, from Sikkim in 1867, at 3,657m, by Sir JD Hooker. Our new collection is thus the first in India for 158 years and the first in Arunachal Pradesh,” the scientists wrote in the article.Belonging to the Campanulaceae family, Cyananthus hookeri is a dwarf, tuft-forming herb with purple-blue flowers that grow in fragile alpine meadows of the Sino-Himalayan region.The scientists observed fewer than 50 mature individuals in the wild, indicating an extremely small population. Based on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List criteria, they have recommended that the species be assessed as endangered at the national level.
