Two species of plants first collected by botanists more than 125 years ago from Meghalaya and the Andaman Islands are now extinct in the wild.
- Classified under the genus Boesenbergia, the species belongs to the family Zingiberaceae, the ginger family of flowering plants.
- Boesenbergia rubrolutea was first collected from the Khasi Hills, Thera, in Meghalaya on October 10, 1886.
- Specimens of Boesenbergia albolutea were collected from the Andamans and sent to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, in 1889.
- Endemic to the locations of their discovery, Boesenbergia albolutea and Boesenbergia rubrolutea are also among the least explored species of the genus Boesenbergia.
- Ten species of this genus, including the two cited above, have been reported in India.
- The research paper was published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa.
(Source: The Hindu)
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