A new variety of Phlogacanthus curviflorus (Wall. Nees from Assam, India
The genus Phlogacanthus Nees placed under the tribe Andrographideae of the family Acanthaceae (Endlicher, 1839) and was established by Nees von Esenbeck and Christian Gottfried Daniel published in "Plantae Asiaticae Rariories" in 1832. The genus comprised of about 49 species and is confined to south East Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Indonesia, India, Myanmar and Vietnam. (Scotland, 1992; Scotland and Vollesen, 2000; Mabberley, 2008; Mc Dade et al. 2008) Clarke (1886) in Hooker's "Flora of British India" described 10 species and P. curviflorus var. brevicalyx C.B. Clarke as variety from Indian subcontinent. In India the genus is mainly reported from the Subtropical Himalayan belts up to 1500 m MSL and distributed in Meghalaya and Assam (Hooker, 1886) Kanjilal et al. (1939) reported 8 species from Assam. During field investigation for taxonomic studies of the genus Phlogacanthus Nees in Assam in 2014 2015 several interesting specimens were collected from Nagaon district of Assam. On perusal of relevant literature (Nees, 1832; Anderson, 1867; Kurz, 1877; Clarke, 1884) critical examination and scrutiny of specimens deposited in ASSAM (BSI, Eastern Regional Circle Shillong) K (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew) and Jstor global plants has resulted in identification of the specimens as P. curviflorus (Wall. Nees. However, the specimens differ from P. curviflorus in certain characters. Consulting the pertinent literature this specimens were identified as a new variety of P. curviflorus (Wall. Nees. This paper describes this new variety as P. curviflorus (Wall. Nees. var. menchanensis Barnali Dutta S.K. Borthakur. Detailed taxonomic description along with other relevant information is provided herewith for easy recognition of the new taxon.