Dipcadi krishnadevarayae (Asparagaceae), a new plant species from Andhra Pradesh, India

Acknowledgement: First author is grateful to University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi for awarding BSR-One Time Grant (2016-17) and also thank Prof. M. Janarathanam, Department of Botany, Goa University for his guidance. Dr. K. Prasad acknowledges SERB-DST, New Delhi and Dr. S. Salamma for UGC, New Delhi for Post-Doctoral fellowships. Mr. Chennakesavulu Naik thank Department of Biotechnology (BT/Env/BC/01/2010) for Senior Research Fellowship. Thanks are also due to Mr. Anil Kumar, Mr. A. Sreenath, Mr. Uma Sankar and Mr. Anjaneyulu for their help in field work. Dipcadi krishnadevarayae (Asparagaceae), a new plant species from Andhra Pradesh, India


OPEN ACCESS
The genus, Dipcadi Medik. belongs to the family Asparagaceae and is distributed in southern, eastern and northern Africa, Socotra, Madagascar, Europe, Middle East and Indian subcontinent comprising 41 species, three varietis and one hybrid (The Plant List 2013;Govaerts et al. 2016). In recent works, Dipcadi with the type Dipcadi serotinum (L.) Medik. is treated under the tribe Ornithogaleae, subfamily Scilloideae and family Asparagaceae (Stevens 2001 onwards;APG IV 2016). Alternatively, it is also considered under a monophyletic subfamily Ornithogalideae under the family Hyacinthaceae (Manning et al. 2009;Martinez-Azorin 2011). Deb & Dasgupta (1981) reported nine species and three varieties of Dipcadi from India. Karthikeyan et al. (1989) recorded nine species and two varieties from India. Later, one new species: D. goaense (Prabhugaonkar et al. 2010) was added to the Indian list making the total to 10 species; of which except D. serotinum (L.) Medik., D. erythraeum Webb & Berthel, all others are endemic to India. Dipcadi is distributed in India from the Himalaya to peninsular India. While working on the flora of Sri Krishnadevaraya University Campus, Anantapuramu, Andhra Pradesh, India, during 2010-2015, we could locate interesting specimens of Dipcadi. After a critical examination of these specimens and other collections from two different localities in Anantapuramu District it is revealed that combination of characters of scape length (c. 85cm), raceme length stigma nature (distinctly 6-lobed) and number of seeds per locule (5-10) were not found in any other known species of Dipcadi and hence warrants new species status. Among the Indian species, this new species is allied to D. serotinum (L.) Medik. and D. montanum (Dalzell) Baker, but differ in the characters as given in Table 1.

Diagnosis
The novel species is distinct from all other species of Dipcadi in having a distinctly 6-lobed stigma and allied to D. serotinum and D. montanum. It differs from both the latter species in having a combination of up to 50cm long linear leaves, 85cm long 16-24 flowered scapes, greenish-yellow flowers, a dark green band outside the outer tepals, a distinctly 6-lobed stigma and up to 10 seeds in each locule.

Etymology
This new species is named after Sri Krishnadevaraya, Emperor of Vijayanagara Dynasty (collection sites and the type locality falls in this region) who was known for his significant contribution in conserving natural resources 400 years ago.

Conservation status
About 500 plants were found in the type locality. About 50 plants were seen at the edges of the cultivated fields, 3km from Garladinne Village and 50 plants near Tadimarri Village. Since an assumption that the species might be distributed elsewhere in Anantapuram District and its surroundings in allied habitats, and more explorations are required to determine its full range of distribution as well as population, the species is categorized as Data Deficient.

Notes
Perusal of literature revealed that of all the species of Dipcadi, only D. glaucum have indistinctly 6-lobed stigmatic apex (Obermeyer 1964), and all other species have either unlobed, disctinctly or indistinctly 3-lobed stigmatic apex. It is interesting to note that Robert Wight's collection of Dipcadi serotinum from Peninsular India have 14 seeds per locule (Deb & Desgupta 1976).