A new hemiparasitic species of Pedicularis (Orobanchaceae) from North Sikkim, India

Abstract

The new species Pedicularis revealiana, is described from Katao in Sikkim Himalaya, India. The new species is hemiparasitic and possesses a combination of characters which makes it unique among all Pedicularis species as it has a perennial caespitose habit, stout and woody stems with decumbent branches and congested internodes, evanescent radical leaves and smaller and fewer cauline leaves with linear pinnae, 3–5 flowered and subcapitate or fascicled inflorescence, pedicillate bracts, minute flowers, hairy calyx with crestate‐dentate and recurved lobes, stipitate and arcuate galea with truncate apex and papillose surface, gland‐dotted labium with very large lateral lobes, unequal filament pairs inserted near top of the corolla tube, stipitate stigma which is bilobed and woolly and monocolpate pollen grains which are large and fusiform in shape with rugulose‐punctate surface. With these combination of characters, it is differentiated from the only allied species Pedicularis gracilis.