Eulophia obtusa (ground orchid)

Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bulgarian Bengali Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish

This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. Additional information may please be sent as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.

Rediscovered in India in 2020

Kanwardeep Singh, Rare orchid blooms in India after over 100 yrs, July 6, 2020: The Times of India

Eulophia obtusa bloom, which was last recorded in Pilibhit in 1902, has now been spotted at two places in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve
From: Kanwardeep Singh, Rare orchid blooms in India after over 100 yrs, July 6, 2020: The Times of India

Bareilly:

A rare orchid species Eulophia obtusa — also known as ground orchid — has been rediscovered in India after forest officials and wildlife experts on a routine inspection in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve chanced upon the white flower with bright pink hues.

In India, the flower — listed as “critically endangered” in the IUCN Red List of endangered species — was last recorded in Pilibhit in 1902, according to documented records in Kew Herbarium in England. The species was described to have its origin from Uttarakhand in the 19th century. It was collected by botanists from Gangetic plains but there have been no sightings in the past 100 years. In 2008, the plant species was sighted in Bangladesh for the first time.

Field director Sanjay Pathak, part of the team that made the discovery in Dudhwa, told TOI, “We spotted the unusual flower on June 30 and took several pictures. We noted down the coordinates of the area. Later, we contacted Mohammed Sharif Hossain Sourav, a renowned botanist from Bangladesh who is currently pursuing his research work in Germany. He confirmed what we had thought all along — the flower was indeed Eulophia obtusa.”

Pathak said studies may be initiated to learn more about the plant. The species was found at two different spots in the Dudhwa forest range, sparking hope that it may be growing in other locations too. Dr Mudit Gupta, state coordinator, WWF India, added: “We will likely conduct a survey of its habitat in the reserve in coordination with the forest department.”

A detailed survey would allow scientists and authorities to take steps towards its conservation. A 2017 study published in ‘Kew Bulletin’, a peer-reviewed journal published by Springer, which had Mohammed Sharif as its first author, had reported that Eulophia obtusa was under serious threat due to habitat loss and reduction in the number of mature individuals in Bangladesh.