Along a gently flowing stream in India’s Kalakad-Mundanthuurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR), in the South Western ghats of India, grows a small flowering tree, long thought to be extinct. Trudging down the rocky banks of the Manimuthar River, Chellam Muthumperumal, a Programme Officer at ENVIS, spotted the mystical plants.
A grove of Wendlandia Angustifolia, with its slender branches and delicate pyramidal flowers, grew on the riverbed. The young researcher at Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History later noted in his publication that the search should have been conducted much earlier.
Extinct or Unnoticed?
Robert Wight first discovered the Wendlandia Angustifolia plants in the Courtalam Hills of the Western Ghats. In 1882, Hooker described them in his book, Flora of British India. More than three decades later, Rangachari recollected the species from the Kannikatti region, after which it was lost for 81 years.
The possible reason for its disappearance may be attributed to an erroneous placement. In 1921, Gamble stated that the plants were found in the Deccan, primarily in the forests of Kadapa and the Western Ghats of Tinnevelly. Muthumperumal notes in his paper that the plants could not have existed in Kadapa. Thus, this mistaken placement had played a part in the species’ long disappearance.
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