 |
| A FLOWER FOR THE WHITE TIGER |
Division: Angiosperms
Class:Dicots
Order: Lamiales
Family:Acanthaceae
Genus: Acanthus
Species: Acanthus albus
Acanthus albus, a new mangrove species has been discovered in Sunderbans after 54 years. The sprawling under-shrub up to 1.5 m long, was found by Nature, Environment and Wildlife Society (NEWS). Employees of this NGO were engaged in planting mangroves along a new embankment of the Sunderbans where the new species was encountered.
It has a cylindrical stem that is woody, glabrous and longitudinally grooved and light green in colour. The leaves are narrow at the base and have 4-5 pairs of sharp teeth at the margin. It proves that there are many other things to be discovered at the Sunderbans. The last variety of mangrove was discovered more than 50 years ago.
Sunderbans has 64 species of mangroves, which are divided into three categories, true mangrove, back mangrove and associate mangrove. Acanthus albus falls in the true mangrove category. It has been confirmed as a new mangrove variety by the Botanical Survey of India and the discovery is cited in Indian Journal of Forestry.
Source: http://wiienvis.nic.in
No comments:
Post a Comment