Botanical Survey of India (BSI) rediscovered presumed extinct species Brachystelma attenuatum after a gap of 188 years in Himachal Pradesh.

July 2, 2022

The researchers from the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) rediscovered a rare, threatened and presumed extinct species Brachystelma attenuatum after a gap of 188 years.
The scientists hail from BSI in Dehradun and Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla.
This species was first discovered and described in 1835 by British botanists — John Forbes Royle and Robert Wight — from Doongie village (now Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh).
In 2020, while conducting field surveys in the Western Himalayas, some interesting tuberous plants were observed in the Bhoranj region of Hamirpur.
These plants were brought to the BSI and there it was identified as Brachystelma parviflorum, a species thought to be extinct by the scientists 186 years ago.
Another presumed extinct species, ‘Brachystelma attenuatum’ has been rediscovered in Hamirpur and Mandi District of Himachal Pradesh.