Researchers spot new species of annual herb in coastal Kollam

Discovering third Allmania species in Kerala, named after E. K. Janaki Ammal, India's first woman botanist, with unique floral traits.

Two years after discovering the second plant species of the genus Allmania in Kerala’s Palakkad district, researchers have now found a third species of this genus in the coastal belt of Kollam. They have named the annual herb after E. K. Janaki Ammal, the Kerala-born scientist often regarded as India’s first woman botanist.

Christened Allmania janakiae (family Amaranthaceae), this species is only the third to be described anywhere under the genus Allmania, researchers said. Floral traits and pollen morphology distinguish it from the other two species, Allmania nodiflora and Allmania multiflora.

A paper on the discovery by S. Arya, Assistant Professor, PG and Research, Department of Botany, PSG College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, and V. S. Anil Kumar, Principal, Government College, Kasaragod, has been published in the journal Phytotaxa.

As a whole, the taxonomy of the genus Allmania is still poorly known, the paper noted.

An annual herb, Allmania janakiae grows up to 20 cm, and has branches arising from the base. Its stem is smooth and light-green in colour. It differs from A. nodiflora and A. multiflora in the size of tepals, bracts and seeds and the number of flowers per inflorescence. Flowering and fruiting occurs during May-August.

In 2022, the same research team had described Allmania multiflora, the second species under Allmania, from Palakkad, Kerala. That discovery had come 188 years after botanists described the genus and the first species. “What is interesting to note is that while the Allmania multiflora was found in the Western Ghats region of the State, the latest discovery is from the coastal belt,” Dr. Arya said.  

Born on November 4, 1897, Edavalath Kakkat Janaki Ammal was noted for her work in  cytogenetics and plant breeding, especially her studies on sugarcane and brinjal. Dr. Janaki Ammal was co-author of the chromosome atlas of cultivated crops with C. D. Darlington. A Padma Shri recipient, she passed away in 1984.