Introduction
The genus Chlorophytum Ker (Asparagaceae), a tuberous herb is
distributed in old world tropics of Africa, Asia and Australia with 202
species (POWO). In India, the genus is represented by 23 species
(Chandore and Yadav 2019) and most of them are distributed in Western
Ghats (Adsul 2014). Most of the species of Chlorophytum are ephemerals;
the size and colour of the flower closely resemble each other making it
difficult to differentiate one from the other. However, Chandoreet al . (2012) propose that the features like roots, filament and
anther length are found to be more consistent and could be used
taxonomically to differentiate species of Chlorophytum .Chlorophytum comosum (Thunb.) Jacques has been widely grown as
ornamental plant in various colours and forms such as indoor decoration,
landscape designing and hanging baskets.
During our field exploration in Kolli hills of the Eastern Ghats, we
collected some interesting specimens of Chlorophytum from shola
borders in rocky grounds. Thorough examination of herbarium material and
relevant literature (Sardesai et al . 2006; Malpure & Yadav 2009;
Chandore et al. 2012; Prabhu kumar et al . 2014; Adsulet al . 2014; Mathew & George 2015; Shaikh et al. 2017;
Borah et al . 2019; Lakshminarasimhan et al . 2019) revealed
that it is an allied to Chlorophytum laxum . A few collections
deposited at MH (MH00021359, MH00021371) and RHT (53495, 45549, 15077)
resembles to C. kolliensis and it was collected from various
hills of Eastern ghats (Sirumalai, Shevroys, Kalrayan). Microscopic
evaluation of root anatomy, seed, anther, pollen, leaf epidermal and
molecular features suggests that it is dissimilar to C. laxum.Hence it is described here as a distinct species of Chlorophytum .