Mazus motuoensis W. B. Ju, Bo Xu bis & X. F. Gao, PhytoKeys 235: 74 (2023);
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Tibet as per POWO;
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Common name: Motuo Mazus
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I photographed this Mazus species a little ahead of Mayudia Pass, near the little town of Hunli, on the road that goes from Roing to Anini in Arunachal Pradesh last year april 2023. After I started reading about Mazus species seen from India I quickly realised that it wasn’t one of them.
There are about 40 odd recognized mazus species worldwide and this particular plant matches rather closely with Mazus motuonensis from Tibet which was described very recently in November 2023.
Many of the vegetative parts including the flowers, leaves and stem as well as the habit are very similar. Of course I didn’t uproot the plant, so It is not possible to match the roots and Rhizome, and unfortunately I didn’t take photographs of the basal leaves, though some of the leaves towards the base can be seen in one of the photographs.
The altitude of Mayudia pass is 2655 m, and the location where this plant was photographed is considerably lower, about 1800-1900 m. It was photographed besides the road under broad leaved trees.
This species is named after Nibi valley of Motuo county in Xizang Province, which when I looked up the map is probably 150-200 km from the location where I photographed this plant as a bird would fly.
I am copying a couple of passages from the note titled Mazus motuoensis (Mazaceae), a new species from Xizang, China
authered by Wen-Bin Ju, Xiong Li, Heng-Ning Deng, Meng Li, Xing-Jin He, Xin-Fen Gao, Bo Xu
The new species is distinguished from congeneric species by its rhizomes, perennial herb covered with multicellular white villus, erect and unbranched stems, having no basal leaves, stem leaves opposite, subsessile, lower lobes margins erose-toothed.
Currently, the authors have discovered only one population of Mazus motuoensis from one single locality in Nibi Valley of Motuo County in Xizang Province, China, and ca. 30 individuals from the type locality. Evergreen broad-leaved forests are widely distributed in this area, so we speculate that this new species has a relatively wide distribution range. Due to insufficient field survey, the natural distribution of this species in the wild is not clear. Following the IUCN Red List criteria (2019), we suggest this species placement in the Data Deficient.
this is the link to note : https://phytokeys.pensoft.net/article/111092/
Wonderful find. Characters matches well with Mazus motuoensis. Don’t think it has been reported yet from India. Would be better to report it as a new addition for India.
I guess it is correct !
https://ppbc.iplant.cn/tu/15773093
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References:
POWO Catalogue of Life Flowers of India Novataxa
Mazus motuoensis (Mazaceae), a new species from Xizang, China W. B. Ju, Bo Xu bis & X. F. Gao, PhytoKeys 235: 74 (2023) (Abstract: Mazus motuoensis W.B.Ju, Bo Xu bis & X.F.Gao is a newly described species found in Xizang Autonomous Region, China. Morphologically, this species differs from all the other known Mazus species by having erect perennial herb form with a rhizome, presence of multicellular hairs, without basal leaves, opposite arrangement of stem leaves, and corolla lobes with erose-toothed margins. Molecular phylogenetic analysis using nuclear and cpDNA genes suggests that this new species occupies a basal position within Mazus. In conclusion, both morphological evidence and molecular phylogenetic analyses support that this species belongs to Mazus and represents an as-yet-unreported new species with distinct differences from other species within the genus.)
