Panchgani ceropegia

Description:

A tuberous erect herb. Stem branched or unbranched, pubescent above, 45 - 50cm high. Leaves opposite; petiole 2.3 - 2.5cm long, rigid, deeply channeled, glabrous; lamina ovate, ovate-oblong to ovate-lanceolate, 6.0 - 9.0cm long, 3.0 - 6.0cm across, base rounded or subcordate, apex acute or acuminate, hairy above, hairs bulbous based. Flowers in subumbellate cymes, arising from between petioles, and axillary; peduncles 0.5 - 1.5cm long, hairy; pedicels 0.8 - 1.5cm long, hairy. Calyx 5-partite; lobes subulate, broader at base, 3.0 - 7.0mm long, hairy or glabrous. Corolla 3.0 - 4.0cm long, usually curved, greyish outside, striated; tube distinctly inflated at base in lower ⅓ to ¼ part, uniformly cylindric above, narrowing at apex, 2.2 - 2.8cm long, inflated portion outside at base with minute purple blotches or guiding spots, inside with a ring of hairs at bottom and with distinct longitudinal purple lines and a dull white ring at mouth separating narrow elongated dark purple parts above, white ring visible outside also; lobes obovate-acute, yellow inside, 6.0 - 7.0mm long, up to 4mm across, glabrous, tips incurved, connate, forming a subglobose head. Corona biseriate, up to 1mm long; outer (gynostegial) corona lobes cupular, consisting of 5 shortly bifid or truncate lobes, with a long bristly hairs; inner (staminal) corona lobes 5, clavate or subclavate, erect, divergent, up to 2mm long, long hairy. Pollinarium erect, waxy with pellucid layer. Corpuscle 94 - 98µm long; head up to 35µm long, up to 65µm across, broader than long, rounded at apex, apical portion subretuse; stalk up to 58µm long, up to 25µm across. Caudicle 48 - 50µm long, up to 16µm across. Pollinia oblong, up to 204µm long, up to 94µm across.

Habitat:

India: Maharashtra; Satara District, Mahabaleshwar surroundings (Lingmala, Hunter's point, Kate's point). It grows in the outskirts of semi-evergreen forests on the edges of Cliffs at 1390 & 1400m.

Notes:

This species was erroneously treated many times as a synonym of Ceropegia lawii by the earlier workers namely McCann (1945), Huber (1957), Santapau and Irani (1958) and others until Venkata Reddi (1968) tried to resurrect it to its original specific status based on his collections from Ambavane-Sakharpathar area in Pune District, Maharashtra, which were found to be misidentified and later described new as C. sahyadrica by Ansari and Kulkarni (1971). It was Ansari (1982a) who scrutinized the specimens available at BLAT and subsequently rediscovered the true C. panchganiensis from Lingmala, near Mahabaleshwar. According to Ansari (1982a), the specimen collected from Lingamala (Ansari 105090) represents the first authentic and mature specimen of C. panchganiensis which he later designated as a Neotype. However, the specimen Howard 7408 (K) of May 1920, from Mahabaleshwar under the name C. lawii was the first authentic and mature specimen of C. panchganiensis. Almeida (2001) treated C. panchganiensis as a variety of C. lawii which seems illogical. Recently Kamble and Yadav (2004), in their paper on Asclepiadaceae of Maharashtra inadvertently treated specimens from Harsishchandragadh as C. panchganiensis, which is actually C. maharashtrensis sp. nov. described in this paper. Ceropegia panchganiensis is allied to C. maccannii and C. maharashtrensis and differs from them in having various characters provided under the remarks of C. maccannii and C. maharashtrensis. Ceropegia panchganiensis is a Critically Endangered species (Mishra and Singh, 2001) having very narrow ecological amplitude distributed in the central part of north Western Ghats (Mahabaleshwar surroundings), which grows in the outskirts of semi-evergreen forests on the edges of cliffs at 1390 - 1400m. This species flowers from June to July (rarely in May). Restricted distribution, narrow range of tolerance and habitat destruction are the major threats of this species. This species requires immediate conservation considering the above threats.