identifier	taxonID	type	CVterm	format	language	title	description	additionalInformationURL	UsageTerms	rights	Owner	contributor	creator	bibliographicCitation
B24187E94F4BB51528D0FD65FB663D26.text	B24187E94F4BB51528D0FD65FB663D26.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Swertia nectariconnatus Harsh Singh, Dharmit Lepcha, B. Hajong & A. Chettri 2025	<div><p>Swertia nectariconnatus Harsh Singh, Dharmit Lepcha, B.Hajong &amp; A.Chettri, sp. nov. (Figs. 1, 2 &amp; 3)</p><p>Type:— INDIA. Sikkim: North Sikkim, Myong, Tara Dho, on swampy alpine grasslands, N 27°29’20.03”, E 88°38’38.05”, 3512 m, 12 June 2025, Dharmit Lepcha 055 (holotype SU!, isotypes BHSC!).</p><p>Diagnosis</p><p>Swertia nectariconnatus is similar to S. pseudohookeri but differs by the calyx lobes rhomboid (vs. obtuseovate in S. pseudohookeri), paired and fused nectaries per petal that lack fimbriae, sometimes bifid at the apex and lanceolate-elliptic in shape (vs. a single nectary per petal, long fimbriate, not bifid at the apex, rhomboidal-oval in shape), filaments 4‒5 mm long, greenish-yellow with bluish-purple striations (vs. filaments ca. 7 mm long, dark green coloured), carpel ellipsoid, 0.2 mm long (vs. ovoid, ca. 1 cm long), and style distinct (vs. style indistinct).</p><p>Description</p><p>Perennial herbs, 30‒40 cm tall. Roots woody with lateral, secondary roots, yellow in colour. Stems erect, simple, hollow, green, glabrous and branched. Radical leaves petiolate, petiole 2‒8 cm long, leaf blade 10‒14 × 2‒4 cm, margin entire, obovate-oblanceolate, apex acute-cuspidate, base cuneate. Cauline leaves sessile, entire, opposite, 4.0‒ 5.5 × 2.0‒ 3.4 cm, ovate-elliptic with an acute-subacute apex, 36-veined, veins prominent abaxially. Inflorescences cymose, 10‒18 cm long. Flowers tetramerous, bracteolate, 1.0‒ 1.5 cm wide; pedicel 0.5‒1.5 cm long; calyx tube 3‒4 mm long, calyx lobes 4, rhomboid with an acute apex and entire margin, glabrous, green, basally fused; Corolla yellow-green with purple striations and patterns, corolla lobes obovate with an obtuse to rounded apex, margin entire, 6‒8 × 4‒5 cm. Pair of fused nectaries per petal, more than half of the nectaries connate, apex acute or sometimes bifid, lanceolate-elliptic, 2‒2.5 mm, moss-green coloured, fimbriae absent. Stamens 4, filaments greenish-yellow with bluish-purple striations, 4‒5 mm long, anti-sepalous, anthers oblong-obovate, bilobed, 0.8‒1.2 mm, dehiscence longitudinal, pollen grains yellow in color. Carpels 2, syncarpous; ovary hypogynous, ovate shaped, 1.5‒2 × 1.2‒1.6 mm, smooth, longitudinally faint line demarcation on the surface, occasionally upper surface covered with thin purple spots, style short, 0.2‒0.4 mm, stigma bifid; ovule pale yellow, oblong-reniform in shape, 0.1‒0.3 mm long. Capsule ellipsoid, ca. 2.2 mm long.</p><p>Flowering &amp; Fruiting: —June to July.</p><p>Habitat and associated species:— Swertia nectariconnatus occurs in swampy alpine grasslands along with Primula kingii Watt (1882: 9), Anemone sp., Euphorbia prolifera Buch.-Ham. ex Don (1825: 62), Pedicularis Linnaeus (1753: 607) and Polygonatum Miller (1754: 4) .</p><p>Etymology:—The species epithet refers to the presence of unique connate nectaries at the base of the petals.</p><p>Distribution:—So far, this new species is only known from its type locality, i.e., Tara Dho, Myong, North Sikkim, India.</p><p>Specimen examined:— Swertia pseudohookeri: INDIA. Arunachal Pradesh: Tawang, 4103 m, 15 July 2023, B. Hajong BAR-003 (12898, 12899 CSIRNEIST!) ; BHUTAN. Marlung: Tsampa, 4400 m, 12 July 1949, F.Ludlow, G. Sherriff &amp; J. H. Hicks 19414 (Holotype BM! [BM001014596]) digital image .</p><p>Taxonomic notes:—The new species belongs to Swertia section Swertia, which includes the Swertia hookeri Clarke (1883: 127) group. Such a group is well differentiated from other members of the section Swertia by its fairly large 4-merous flowers, single nectary at the base of corolla, which is naked or fimbriate, cymose inflorescences, and robust growth. The new species, i.e., Swertia nectariconnatus, presents a unique set of characters, the fused pair of nectaries without fimbriae at each petal base (Fig. 2I), bifid apex of the nectary, and greenish-black coloured petals (Fig. 2D), which shows its distinctness among all known species of the Swertia hookeri group and even the whole genus (Figs. 1, 2). It resembles S. pseudohookeri due to its tetramerous flowers, colour of the flower, and small petals (Fig. 1H–G), but it differs from latter by multiple characters which are presented in the TABLE 1.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/B24187E94F4BB51528D0FD65FB663D26	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Lepcha, Dharmit;Singh, Harsh;Hajong, Bipankar;Chettri, Arun	Lepcha, Dharmit, Singh, Harsh, Hajong, Bipankar, Chettri, Arun (2025): A new species of Swertia L. (Gentianaceae) from Eastern Himalaya, India. Phytotaxa 726 (2): 103-109, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.726.2.5, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.726.2.5
