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News: Botanists recently identified a new woolly-haired flowering plant, Osbeckia ulotricha, in the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve.
About Osbeckia ulotricha
- Osbeckia ulotricha is a flowering plant growing in the shola grasslands of the Western Ghats.
- Family: It belongs to the Melastomataceae family.
- Distribution: It is endemic to the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve.
- Habitat: It grows mainly in the damp margins of Tropical Montane Wet Temperate Forest (shola) and Montane Temperate Grassland ecosystems.
- It occurs at elevations of 1,200 m – 1,500 m.
- Features:
- Flowering month: The species flowers and fruits between February and May.
- It has an urn-shaped hypanthium (a cup-like flower base) with a neck.
- It also has a sub-globose hypanthium (or an almost round flower base) and an ovary crowned with true bristles, meaning fine, stiff hairs at the top.
- Its leaves are clustered at the apex.
- Note: The only known Osbeckia with stylar hairs is a variety of O. stellata, distributed in the Himalayas, China and Indo-China, and belonging to the section Ceramicalyx.
- Conservation status: The species has been assessed as Data Deficient under IUCN categories and criteria.
