A range extension of Gentiana capitata Buch .-Ham . ex D . Don subsp . harwanensis ( G . Singh ) Halda ( Gentianaceae ) to Ladakh Trans-Himalaya , India

We collected Gentiana capitata subsp. harwanensis for the first time from Suru valley in Kargil district of Ladakh region, India, and thus extend this subspecies’ geographic distribution to the Trans-Himalayan biogeographic region. This subspecies is endemic to India and so far recorded from the North-west and Western Himalaya of India.


Introduction
The genus Gentiana L. was first established by Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum (1753).Currently, around the world there are approximately 362 recognized species belonging to 15 sections of the genus (Ho andLiu 2001, Mabberley 2008).In India, Gentiana is represented by about 68 species.Of these, approximately 32 species occur in Jammu and Kashmir (Garg 1987, Gupta et al. 2012, Maity 2014, Anilkumar et al. 2015, Shabir et al. 2017, 2018).
Gentiana capitata Buch.-Ham.ex D.Don subsp.harwanensis Halda was first described by Singh (1976) as Gentiana harwanensis G.Singh from Harwan in Kashmir (Jammu and Kashmir) and is endemic to India.The type locality, Harwan (34°09ʹ32ʺ N, 074°54ʹ13ʺ E), is 15 km from Srinagar Kashmir and is within the temperate bio-geographic region in North-western Himalaya.
Herein, we provide the first record of this subspecies from the Suru valley, in the Kargil district of Ladakh region, India, and extend this subspecies' geographic distribution to the Trans-Himalayan biogeographic region.A detailed description, photographs, and distributional map are included.

Methods
During a recent botanical trip to Suru valley in Kargil district in June 2018, the first author (MS) came across and collected a specimen of the subspecies reported here.The identification was made by consulting the protologue, the relevant taxonomic literature (Agarwal and Bhattacharayya 1982, Garg 1987, Halda 1995, Ho and Liu 2001, Shabir et al. 2018), and herbarium specimens housed in the herbaria of Kashmir University (KASH) where the holotype is deposited, National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow (LWG), and from the image of the isotype deposited in the New York Botanical Garden (NY).The voucher specimens are deposited in LWG.
Morphological characters were observed and pho-tographs made of the floral parts using a stereo-zoom microscope (Leica).Field photographs were taken by using a camera (Canon EOS D200).Figures were edited using software Adobe Photoshop.Diagnostic characters.This subspecies is characterized by its stem not naked below, apically branched; basal leaves rosulate, cauline leaves obovate to spathulate, 3 or 4 pairs; flowers sessile to sub-sessile, clustered (3-5) into a terminal head; calyx tube membranous, lobes ovate-oblong, margins narrowly cartilaginous and crenulate; corolla lobes ovate with acute apex; plicae bifid; capsules obovate with their base truncate.Singh (1976).Omer (1993) transferred the taxon to the genus Ciminalis Adans., and Halda (1995) gave subspecies rank to G. harwanensis (as G. capitata subsp.harwanensis).Shabir et al. (2017) also treated this taxon as a subspecies.Gentiana capitata subsp.harwanensis is endemic to India, where it is known from the submontane and temperate regions in Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand in Indian western Himalaya (Singh 1976, Garg 1987, Gupta et al. 2012, Shabir et al. 2017).The IUCN (2012) categorized it as Data Deficient.

Key to the infraspecific taxa of
Although major taxonomic explorations have been made in the Ladakh Trans-Himalayan region (Kachroo et al. 1977, Klimeš and Dickore 2005, Chaurasia et al. 2007, Srivastava and Shukla 2015), but there are no reports available on the occurrence of this subspecies in the region.Our report of this subspecies in Suru valley extends its geographic distribution to the Ladakh Himalaya, which is within the Indian Trans-Himalayan biogeographic region.