Tripura: Plant Taxonomist discovers new plant species 'Begonia tripurensis' in state

A new plant species, Begonia tripurensis, was discovered by Dixit Bora, a plant taxonomist from Tripura University, during an expedition to Dumboor Lake in Tirthamukh, Gomati district.

Dipankar Borah of Kaliabor College, Mark Hughes of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Sani Das, Biplab Banik, Smita Debbarma, and Badal Kumar Dutta, all from the Plant Taxonomy and Biodiversity Laboratory, Department of Botany, Tripura University, assisted Bora in this discovery.

Speaking with India Today NE, Dixit mentioned that this is the first-ever new plant species discovered in Tripura.

“As a field botanist, I always hope to find something new and interesting. By this time, I have come across many plants new to me and also new to Tripura. But finding something new to science was a dream come true. It was almost one year ago, in December 2022, when I was on a regular visit to the Gomati district of Tripura with my teammates for floristic surveys. Since it was my Ph.D. site, we regularly visited that area. Suddenly, we came across a unique species of Begonia covered with hirsute hairs, especially on the fruit, growing on a hill cliff on the banks of Dumbur Lake, Tirthamukh,” he said.

Begonia L. (Begoniaceae), with 2138 currently accepted species, is one of the largest and fastest-growing angiosperm genera due to ongoing taxonomic research. 

The North Eastern Region of India is a hotspot for the genus Begonia, as evident from the description of several species from the region in the current decade. However, recent species discoveries within the NER have so far been restricted to the state of Arunachal Pradesh, due to its vast expanse of forest and increased focus of botanists in the state.

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Dixit added that Tripura boasts moist to dry deciduous forests, Sal forests, secondary bamboo forests, and grasslands. However, over the last two decades, the forests and vegetation of Tripura have been badly affected by expanding monocultures of rubber and teak, with virgin forests narrowed down to a few pockets. Dumbur Lake is one such last remaining pocket.

“I took some pictures of the plants with a limited number of flowers and contacted my brother, Dipoo Dipankar Borah. Upon review, he asked me to gather more details as the initial information wasn't sufficient for proper identification of the species. Later, in January 2023, we revisited the site, but unfortunately, we didn't find any flowers. Again, in March 2023, I successfully spotted them in flowering. This time, I took as many photographs as I can, collected a few samples, and later studied the materials, comparing them with all the known species and related ones informed by Dipankar Da and Mark. In March 2023, they confirmed that it was indeed new. I was super excited, smiling the whole day, and couldn't sleep. I couldn't stop myself from sharing the news with my mates. With their able assistance, the new species was described as Begonia tripurensis Dixit, B. Datta & D. Borah, honoring the state where this species is known from,” he told this publication.

He further said that after a year of rigorous review involving four revisions, they were thrilled by the unexpected acceptance of their discovery.

Notably, D. B. Deb, who extensively documented the Flora of Tripura in 1983, had not identified any new flowering plant species from the region. He even stated that there was no evidence of previously undiscovered species by earlier researchers. Nevertheless, their findings revealed a new species, leading them to name it Begonia tripurensis in honor of the state.