Portulaca bharat AMBER SRIVASTAVA NISHANT CHAUHAN SUDHANSHU SHEKHAR DASH SUSHIL KUMAR SINGH, Phytotaxa Vol. 705 No. 2: 13 Jun. 2025;
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Congratulations Amber Srivastava et al. for publishing a new species Portulaca Bharat:
Congratulations to Amber Srivastava, Nishant Chauhan, Sudhanshu Shekhar Dash and Sushil Kumar Singh for publishing a new species Portulaca bharat.
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An important point raised by many and noted by me also. Normally the specific epithet is formed by changing the ending of the word. The only exception is when we use Noun in Apposition as a specific epithet ,, but then it should start with capital initial. It is not so in this case. Any explanation.?
according to latest rules, when Noun used in apposition the gender of Genus and specific epithet don’t match, otherwise there is trend to use all specific epithets with small initial.
I have seen this paper and the name, and the other on namonarmadense. I am confused how these names are correct. To some extent, I do think bharat is ok. I think there is a provision to latinise the names, but it is not compulsory these days. I will look into it.
Here the specific epithet “bharat” has been used as a noun. However, I wish it should have been used as “bhatatensis” instead.
Recently Prof. D. Maity also published such a disputable epithet, “tista”.
Here is a feedback from the authors:
Dr. K. N. Gandhi suggested the name Portulaca bharat.
Thank you Sir! Actually this species was intentionally named as ‘Bharat’ because there was no such species named after the ancient name of this country. Dr. Kanchi N. Gardhi sir suggested me 5 specific epithets of which I selected the first one i.e. Bharat. A similar example is a very popular name Smilax china.
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Reference:
Portulaca bharat (Portulacaceae), a new species from Aravalli hills of Rajasthan, India AMBER SRIVASTAVA NISHANT CHAUHAN SUDHANSHU SHEKHAR DASH SUSHIL KUMAR SINGH (Abstract: Portulaca bharat (Portulacaceae) is described and illustrated as a new species from the Aravalli hills (Jaipur, Rajasthan, India). The new species belongs to the subg. Portulaca sect. Neossia having opposite leaf, and it resembles the Linnaean P. quadrifida in having prostrate habit, articulated stem, four petals and flowers encircled by four involucral bracts, but differs in having larger growth habit, oblong-lanceolate and slightly concave leaves, pale yellow flowers becoming creamish-white towards apex, presence of glandular hairs on stamen filaments and thick roots. A detailed morphological description is provided, along with original photos.)