A Tree with Two Kinds of Flowers: The New Arunachal Species That Rewrote a Genus

Article summary

Researchers from the Thackeray Wildlife Foundation have described a new flowering-tree species, Mitrephora rashmiae, discovered in the remote forests of the Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh. Belonging to the custard-apple family (Annonaceae), it was found growing along the edge of a forest stream at about 410 metres elevation between Daporijo and Taliha, and is only the second species of the genus Mitrephora ever recorded from the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot. Its scientific significance lies in its reproduction: it is the first species in the genus known to bear both male and bisexual flowers on the same tree — a rare strategy called andromonoecy — and it can be identified by pale-yellow flowers with purple stripes and a distinctive dome-shaped inner-petal structure. Because researchers have so far found only a single individual, the species has been assigned a provisional 'Data Deficient' conservation status. It is named in honour of Rashmi Thackeray. For UPSC, the discovery is a compact study in taxonomy, the Eastern Himalaya as a biodiversity frontier, and why species documentation underpins conservation.