Hydrocotyle conferta

IUCN Red List Status: Endangered (EN)

Hydrocotyle conferta Wight, Icon. Pl. Ind. Orient. 3: t. 1002 1845.; 

Image by Siva Siva (ID by Santhosh Kumar), photographed in Sri Lanka

 

Hydrocotyle conferta is confined to Niligiri and Palni Hills of Western Ghats where it occurs in high altitude slopes in montane tropical forests and near streams. These areas are highly threatened due to various anthropogenic pressures that will potentially have a major impact on the range of this species. It is restricted to high altitudes and the extent and area of occupancy is small. Due to its fragmented distribution and ongoing threats, it is assessed as Endangered.       

Hydrocotyle conferta is endemic to southern Western Ghats. The species is distributed in Nilgiri and Palni hills of Tamil Nadu, India (Gamble 1921, Nayar and Sastry 1988).
This is a high altitude species that occurs above 2,000 m. A prostrate herb on sunny open hill slopes and along forest margins near to river margins (Nayar and Sastry 1988).      


Prostrate herb, rooting at nodes; branchlets villous. Leaves alternate, orbicular-reniform, 2.5-3.5 cm wide, 7-9 lobed; lobes triangular, crenate; petiole to 14 cm; stipules scarious. Umbel single, axillary, 5-15- flowered, subsessile. Involucre obscure. Flowers sessile. Calyx obsolete. Petals 5, cream, oblong, 1 mm, inflexed, valvate. Stamens 5. Fruit suborbicular, strongly flattened laterally, shortly stipitate, 5-9 in a cluster; vittae 0; seed 1.     
Flowering and fruiting: January-April
Grasslands and shola margins     
Southern Western Ghats
 
 
30062013 ASP 74 : Attachments (1).  2 posts by 2 authors.
Can you please ID this creeping medicinal plant. Photo was taken in Sri Lanka in Oct 2012

Hydrocotyle conferta