Endemic flowering plants of northern Western Ghats (Sahyadri Ranges) of India: A checklist

: A checklist of endemic flowering plant species of the northern Western Ghats (Sahyadri Ranges) of India is provided along with their IUCN threatened category. There are 159 flowering plant taxa belonging to 81 genera and 31 families found to be strictly endemic to the Sahyadri Ranges. The genus Ceropegia has the largest number (17) of endemic species. Five monotypic genera are restricted to the Sahyadri Ranges. Most of these endemic taxa are restricted to small biogeographical areas and are rare in occurrence. Field assessment has shown that 34 endemic taxa fall into IUCN category Critically Endangered, 18 into Endangered and 20 into Vulnerable. A large number of endemic taxa (34) are known only by their type collection, which could not be recollected even after repeated field explorations undertaken by several workers in their habitat of occurrence in last two decades. Hence, they are put in the category ‘Data Deficient’.


Introduction
The concept of endemism has a long history in biology, dating back to Candolle (1820).In 1882, Engler gave a preliminary idea of endemism and provided one of the first classifications of endemics according to their evolutionary age.This classification has been greatly extended and widely used by many botanists (e.g., Willis 1922;Cain 1944;Favarger and Contandriopoulos 1961;Stebbin and Major 1965;Hopper 1979).Early research on endemism pertained to vascular plants in temperate areas, for which several reviews have appeared in the past few decades (Prentice 1976;Krukeberg and Robinwitz 1985;Gentry 1986;Major 1988).In the tropics, where surveys of endemism began somewhat later, vascular plants, birds and butterflies have been studied.In India, several authors used the term endemic in their flora while giving the distributional data of different taxa.Cooke (1958) in his 'Flora of Bombay Presidency' used the term endemic for several taxa.There were some scattered publications on endemic plants of Western Ghats.Chatterjee (1940) listed 34 endemic dicotyledonous genera from Peninsular India.Rao (1972) stated 164 genera are endemic to Indian floristic region, of which nearly 60 genera are confined to Peninsular India and Sri Lanka.Subramanyam and Nayar (1974) enumerated endemic of Western Ghats.Nayar (1977) estimated that about 2,100 endemic flowering plant species occur in Peninsular India, which represent about 32% of its flora.However, Ahmedullah and Nayar (1986) did the first exhaustive work on the endemic Plants of Peninsular India.They have enumerated 1,940 endemic species including infraspecific taxa from Peninsular India.In the volumes of Red Data Books of Indian Plants (Nayar and Sastry 1987;1988;1990), some 90 endemic taxa were included from Northern Western Ghats.Nayar (1996) has enumerated 2,150 endemic plants of Peninsular India.Tetali et al. (2000) have reported 439 endemic taxa Abstract: A checklist of endemic flowering plant species of the northern Western Ghats (Sahyadri Ranges) of India is provided along with their IUCN threatened category.There are 159 flowering plant taxa belonging to 81 genera and 31 families found to be strictly endemic to the Sahyadri Ranges.The genus Ceropegia has the largest number (17) of endemic species.Five monotypic genera are restricted to the Sahyadri Ranges.Most of these endemic taxa are restricted to small biogeographical areas and are rare in occurrence.Field assessment has shown that 34 endemic taxa fall into IUCN category Critically Endangered, 18 into Endangered and 20 into Vulnerable.A large number of endemic taxa (34) are known only by their type collection, which could not be recollected even after repeated field explorations undertaken by several workers in their habitat of occurrence in last two decades.Hence, they are put in the category 'Data Deficient'.Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa (Figure 1).The mountain chains of Northern Western Ghats are steep on the west windward side and slopping towards leeward side.The vegetation of the Northern Western Ghats in general can be differentiated into altitudinal zones.There are scrub and semi-deciduous type vegetation at elevations between 200-500 m.Dry deciduous forests are found at elevations between 500-1100 m.The windward side of Ghats, which receives the maximum rainfall, supports the moist deciduous forests having pockets of evergreen type in regions of higher rainfall.

Data collection
Information from taxonomic literature, specimens deposited in various herbaria and field explorations were utilized to prepare this checklist.Intensive and extensive field explorations were undertaken to different corners and pockets of Northern Western Ghats between 2001-2010.During field visits, data was gathered on distribution, area of occupancy, population size, number of mature individuals (if possible), and phenology and ecology.Three replicate plant specimens were collected.Collected plant materials were processed for preparation as herbarium specimens by usual techniques (Rao and Sharma 1990).Voucher specimens are deposited in the herbarium of Shivaji University, Kolhapur (Maharashtra) India and Walchand College Herbarium, Solapur.Field identifications were confirmed with the help of available literature (Cooke 1958;Bor 1960;Lakshminarasimhan 1996;Almeida 1996;1998;2001;2003;2009;Jagtap and Singh 1999;Singh and Karthikeyan 2000;2001;Ansari 2008;Ansari and Balakrishnan 2009;Binojkumar and Balakrishnan 2010).Author citation and binomial of collected species were verified with the International Plant Name Index (IPNI).Categorization of endemic taxa into IUCN red list categories (2001) was done mainly based on our own field observations after getting the preliminary information from literature and herbaria.During categorization mainly the criterion B of IUCN Criteria version 3.1 with their sub-criteria B1 (extent occurrence) and B2 (area of occupancy) have been followed.In some cases criteria C (population size estimated to number fewer than 250 mature individuals), D (population size estimated to number fewer than 50 mature individuals) and E (probability of extinction in the wild) have also been followed.The information for newly described taxa was collected by personnel communication with the original authors or with other experts in this field.All the families in the present work have been arranged according to Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Classification System (APG III, 2009).The genera, species and infraspecific taxa are arranged alphabetically.Additional information such as habit, IUCN category and voucher specimen number of each taxon is provided.Important endemic plants are featured in the Figures 2-6.

Results
A total of 159 species (including infraspecific taxa) are endemic to northern Western Ghats of India.Many of them are restricted to small geographical area and facing high risk of extinction.Six endemic species have already been declared as extinct.A large number of endemic taxa are known by their type collection and nobody could relocate them even in their type localities.Hence, it seems that either these taxa are vanished from their natural localities or they are victim of misidentification.Thirty four endemic taxa fall into Critically Endangered category, are known from one or two localities with limited number of individuals and they are on verge of extinction.Cryptocoryne cognata Schott.has been collected during present work which was declared as extinct in Red Data of Indian Plants.
Most of these endemic species are restricted to small biogeographically areas and are rare in occurrence; their populations have been declining rapidly due to habitat modifications and anthropogenic pressures.f.) Danser and Drimia razii Ansari) are known from only a single locality (type locality) with limited number of individuals and less than 10 km 2 area of occupancy.We were not able to locate their 25 mature individuals in spite of several critical field explorations undertaken to various corners and pockets of Sahyadri Ranges.Hence, they seem to be on the verge of extinction.
Surprisingly, a large number of endemic taxa (34) are known only by their type collection, which could not be recollected even after repeated field explorations undertaken by several workers (e.g., Yadav 1997;Yadav et al. 1997;Tetali et al. 2000;Mishra andSingh 2001, Gaikwad andYadav 2004;Yadav and Kamble 2008;Murthy et al. 2012;Gaikwad et al. 2013) in their habitat of occurrence in last two decades.Therefore, it seems that either these taxa are vanished from their localities or alternatively, that species misidentification has occured.In the present work, these taxa are put in IUCN category 'Data Deficient' due to lack of adequate information on their distribution and/or population status to make direct or indirect assessment of their extinction risk.However, Barleria gibsonioides Blatter Crinum eleonorae Blatter & McCann var.eleonorae, Drimia polyphylla (Hook.f.) Ansari & Raghavan, Habenaria carangensis Dalzell, Hypoestis lanata Dalzell and Scilla virdis Blatter & Hallb.have already been declared as extinct by earlier workers (Nayar 1996;Tetali et al. 2000;Mishra and Singh 2001).Cryptocoryne cognata Schott was declared as 'Extinct' in the Red Data Book of Indian Plants, volume 3 (Nayar and Sastry 1990) but during the present investigation, it has been observed in the many streams of the Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts of Maharashtra.Therefore, the status of this species has been changed from extinct to Endangered.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Location Map of Northern Western Ghats (Sahyadri Ranges) of India.