Indian lipstick plant rediscovered in Arunachal Pradesh

Itanagar: Researchers at the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) have rediscovered the rare ‘Indian lipstick plant’, in the Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh after 100 years.

The plant (Aeschynanthus monetaria Dunn) was first identified by British botanist Stephen Troyte Dunn in 1912, based on the plant samples gathered from Arunachal Pradesh by another English botanist, Isaac Henry Burkill.

“Due to the appearance of the tubular red corolla, some of the species under the genus Aeschynanthus are called lipstick plants,” BSI scientist Krishna Chowlu said in an article on the discovery published in Current Science journal.

Chowlu collected a few specimens of Aeschynanthus from Hyuliang and Chipru of the Anjaw district in December 2021.

The plant grows in moist and evergreen forests, at elevations ranging from 543 to 1134 m. The flowering and fruiting time is between October and January.