Tag : Tolerant

    Discovers 62 Desiccation-Tolerant Vascular Plant Species In India's Western Ghats

    Vascular Plant
    Inam Ansari
    June1/ 2023

    New Delhi (The Hawk): India’s biodiversity hotspot, the Western Ghats, is home to 62 Desiccation-Tolerant Vascular Plant Species which could have applications in agriculture, particularly in areas with scarcity of water. Desiccation-tolerant vascular (DT) plants are able to withstand extreme dehydration, losing up to 95% of their water content, and they revive themselves once water is available again. This unique ability allows them to survive in harsh, arid environments that would be uninhabitable for most other plants. DT plants have been studied for their possible applications in agriculture, particularly in areas with limited water resources. In tropical regions, they are the predominant occupants of rock outcrops. In India, DT plants have been relatively understudied. Although rock outcrops are common landscapes in the Western Ghats (WG), knowledge of DT plants in the region is poor. A recent study by scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) Pune, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has identified 62 DT species in the Western Ghats, many more than the earlier known nine species. The research published in the Nordic Journal of Botany provides an overview of Indian DT plants, with a special focus on the WG, and includes an inventory of species with their habitat preferences. In the inventory of 62 species, 16 are Indian endemic, and 12 are exclusive to the Western Ghats outcrops, highlighting WG’s importance as a global DT hotspot. In addition to rock outcrops, tree trunks in the partially shaded forests were also found to be crucial habitats for DT species, as per the study. The team of researchers scrutinized outcrop species for their DT properties by seasonal field observations, fol ...

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