A new plant species found on the high, muddy slopes of the Nelliyampathy hills in Kerala’s Palakkad district has been named after Barbara McClintock, the American scientist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize for her discovery of the ‘jumping genes.’
The new species belongs to the genus Stellaria (family Caryophyllaceae), and researchers have christened it Stellaria mcclintockiae.
This is an annual herb growing up to 15 cm in height. Known to be found only in the Nelliyampathy hills as of now, and that too at an elevation of 1,250-1,400 metres, Stellaria mcclintockiae differs from other species of this genus with respect to the features of its petals, pollen morphology, bracts, sepals, and seed architecture, a paper on the discovery published in the scientific journal Phytotaxa said.
“This is the first species of the genus Stellaria reported from south India. Species of this genus pose difficulties for researchers. The floral parts are minute and the delineating traits are hard to pinpoint,” S. Arya, Assistant Professor, PG and Research, Department of Botany, PSG College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, one of the researchers behind the discovery, said.
Dr. Arya co-authored the Phytotaxa paper with V. S. Anil Kumar, Principal, Government College, Kasaragod; Jose Sojan; Alen Alex Philip; and V. Suresh of the Department of Botany, Government Victoria College, Palakkad are the other members of the research team.
Specimens were collected during the monsoon season of 2022, but the identification was a long-drawn process, which also involved genetic analysis.
Once it was established as a new species, the research team had decided to name it after Barbara McClintock who won an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983 “for her discovery of mobile genetic elements.” Dr. McClintock, who studied the cytogenetics of maize, proved genetic elements can sometimes change position- ‘jump’ - on a chromosome, causing nearby genes to become active or inactive.
In their paper, the researchers have recommended that Stellaria mcclintockiae be classified as critically endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria, since the number of plants is very few and its habitat is “prone to severe grazing and stamping of elephants.”
