A rare plant sometimes called as ‘Indian lipstick plant’ has been discovered by the researchers at the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) from remote Anjaw district in Arunachal Pradesh after more than a century. Back in 1912, a British botanist Stephen Troyte Dunn first identified the plant (Aeschynanthus monetaria Dunn) based on the plant samples gathered from Arunachal Pradesh by another English botanist, Isaac Henry Burkill.
“Due to the appearance of the tubular red corolla, some of the species under the genus Aeschynanthus are called lipstick plants,” BSI scientist Krishna Chowlu said in an article on the discovery published in Current Science journal.
In Arunachal Pradesh, during the floristic studies, back in December 2021, a few specimens of Aeschynanthus from Hyuliang and Chipru of Anjaw district were collected by the Chowlu
A review of the relevant documents as well as a critical study of the fresh specimens confirmed that the specimens were Aeschynanthus monetaria, which had never been obtained from India since Burkill in 1912.
As per the article co-authored by Gopal Krishna, the genus name Aeschynanthus is derived from the Greek aischyne or aischyn, which means shame or to feel embarrassed respectively, and anthos, which means flower.
Aeschynanthus monetaria Dunn is morphologically unique and distinct among all the Aeschynanthus species known from India by its fleshy orbicular leaves with a greenish upper surface and purplish-green lower surface. The specific epithet ‘monetaria’ means ‘mint-like’, alluding to the appearance of its leaves.
