New species of Echinops found in Sahyadri mountains

Description

Context: The new species was discovered while the botanists were working on a project called “Assessing the endemic biodiversity of high elevational plateaus of northern western ghats”.

It is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plants and unique because of the size of its composite inflorescence

Echinops Sahyadricus (English Common Name — Sahyadri Globe Thistle)

Discovered from the Rajgad Fort in the Sahyadri mountains.
Echinops is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plants found in tropical and north Africa, the Mediterranean basin and West Asia, extending eastwards to China and Japan.
The highest number of taxa (76) are concentrated in the Iranian plateau.
Five species are found in India including two in Maharashtra.
“The new species is unique because of the size of its composite inflorescence which measures up to 9 cm in diameter that is relatively large compared to other Echinops species found around the world,”
The species is endemic to Western Maharashtra and found only on a few open hilltops in the northern western ghats.
It is named after the Sahyadri mountains.
The new species is close to other Indian species called Echinops echinatus AKA Indian Globe thistle and one European species called Echinops sphaerocephalus.
But it differs in size of inflorescence, types of whorls of spine-like Bracts around the floret and type of leaves surface.
“In India, Echinops is represented by five taxa out of which three, E. cornigerus DC, E. niveus Wall and E. prionolepis Bornm & Mattf are restricted to the Himalayas and neighbouring areas,”
It grows vegetatively on open grassy slopes of mountains in four months of monsoon and blooms in November. Fruiting can be seen in December.
The researchers said projects like road widening in the ghats and construction activities on forts could affect populations of this species and this should be protected at all costs.