Botanical Survey of India (BSI) have discovered the Indian Lipstick plant

Tags: Science and Technology

Researchers from the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) have discovered a rare plant after more than a century in Anjou district of Arunachal Pradesh. It is known as 'Indian lipstick plant'.

• Scientists had collected some specimens of 'Eschinanthus' from Huiliang and Chipru in Anjou district in December 2021 during flower studies in Arunachal Pradesh.

• After review of documents and study of fresh specimens it was confirmed that specimens belong to Aeschynanthus monetaria, which has not been found in India since the year 1912.

• This plant was first discovered in Arunachal Pradesh in 1912 by the British botanist Stephen Troyt Dunn.

• The discovery was based on plant samples collected from Arunachal Pradesh by another English botanist, Isaac Henry Burkill.

• About 'Indian Lipstick Plant'

• It is known in botany as 'aeschynanthus monetaria dun'.

• The word aeschynanthus is derived from the Greek word aishine or aishine, which means feeling ashamed or embarrassed, while anthos means flower.

• Some species under the genus Eschinanthus are called lipstick plants due to the presence of the tubular red corolla.

• This plant grows in moist and evergreen forests at a height of 543 to 1134 metres.

• The flowering and fruiting time of this plant is between October to January.

• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has placed the lipstick plant species in the 'endangered' category.