Amomum andamanicum ( Zingiberaceae ) : a new species from the Andaman Islands , India

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RESEARCH ARTICLE InTRoduCTIon
The ginger family Zingiberaceae is the largest of the eight families comprising the monophyletic tropical order Zingiberales (Pederson 2004).Zingiberaceae consist of 53 genera and over 1200 species (Kress et al. 2002).Amomum Roxb. is the second largest genus after Alpinia Roxb. in the ginger family with about 150-180 species, widely distributed in Southeast Asia (Xia et al. 2004).In India the genus is represented by 22 species, mostly restricted to North-East India and South India.
The first reported species of Amomum from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was A. fenzlii, described with illustrations by Kurz in 1876, based on a collection from Camorta in the Nicobar Islands (Balakrishnan & Nair 1979).Subsequently, Baker (1892) reported A. fenzlii Kurz (transferred to Hornstedtia by Schumann 1904) and A. aculeatum Roxb., and Balakrishnan & Nair (1979) added A. maximum Roxb.The most recent account of Zingiberaceae in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Srivastava 1998) accordingly lists two species.Recent field explorations in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands by the authors resulted in the collection of an interesting species of Amomum with creeping slender rhizomes and silvery silky leaves, which looks similar to A. hypoleucum Thwaites but differs in many characters.Specimens were planted in Calicut University Botanic Garden, Kerala, South India.The same species had been collected on Mt Harriet, South Andamans, in 1994 by a research team of the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI) from the Andamans and was introduced to the garden at Palode, Thiruvananthapuram, South India.This plant established well and flowered in 2008 and was used for the description and illustration of the species except for the fruiting characters which are based on the wild collections made from Mt Harriet (type locality) and other regions of the Andaman Islands.A comparison with the other species of Amomum in the Andaman and Nicobar islands is provided in Table 1.
Amomum andamanicum belongs to Group IV of the informal grouping of Smith (1985) and also shows some morphological affinities with cluster 1 of the A. maximum group in the phylogenetic grouping of Xia et al. (2004).Capsule globose, 2.5 -3 cm long, echinate, Capsule globose, 1.5 -2.5 cm long, 10-12 ridged, Capsule , 2 -3 cm long, 9-ribbed, ridges present along reddish brown ridges mostly towards the upper half, irregularly the length, slightly lobed, apex tapering, green lobed, apex somewhat flattened, green

Table 1
Comparison of A. andamanicum with other species of the genus in the Islands.

Table 2
Comparison of distinguishing characters of A. hypoleucum and A. andamanicum.Labellum 3.3 -3.5 by 2.7-3 cm, obovate, pale yellow, red at centre, yellow towards the tip, appears pink when dried, densely hairy in the middle part within, margin crumpled, distantly crenulate.Lateral staminodes c. 0.5 cm long, more or less flattened, pale yellow towards the tip and red towards base, glabrous, pubescent at base.
map 1 Distribution of A. andamanicum in the Andaman Islands.foldedinwards near apex.