'Lipstick' plant rediscovered in Arunachal Pradesh after decades

ITANAGAR: In the Arunachal Pradesh area of Anjaw, a rare plant known as the "Indian lipstick plant" has been rediscovered. Researchers from the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) have made a rediscovery. Stephen Troyte Dunn, a British botanist, was the first to identify the plant in 1912.

“Due to the appearance of tubular red corolla, some of the species under the genus Aeschynanthus are called lipstick plants,” according to BSI scientist Krishna Chowlu, who wrote an article about the discovery in the journal Current Science.

The specimens were Aeschynanthus monetaria, which had never been collected from India since 1912. A review of the records and a critical examination of fresh specimens showed that the specimens were Aeschynanthus monetaria, which had never been obtained from India since 1912.

“Landslides are frequent in Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh. Developmental activities such as broadening of roads, construction of schools, new settlements and markets, and jhum cultivation are some of the major threats to this species in Arunachal Pradesh,” Chowlu said in the abstract of the Current Science report. At heights ranging from 543 to 1134 metres, the plant grows in damp, evergreen forests.