Journal of Plant Firenze University Press Taxonomy www.fupress.com/webbia WEBBIA and Geography Ophiorrhiza meenachilarensis, a new species of Rubiaceae from southern Western Ghats, India Citation: Anoop Puthuparampil Balan, Aloor Jose Robi, Ginu Joseph (2020) Ophiorrhiza meenachilarensis, a new species of Rubiaceae from southern Anoop Puthuparampil Balan1,*, Aloor Jose Robi2, Ginu Joseph2 Western Ghats, India. Webbia. Jour- 1 nal of Plant Taxonomy and Geography KSCSTE-Malabar Botanical Garden and Institute for Plant Sciences, Kozhikode, Kerala, 75(2): 231-236. doi: 10.36253/jopt-8508 India 2 Department of Botany, Bishop Abraham Memorial College, Thuruthicad, Pathanamthit- Received: April 23, 2020 ta, Kerala, India *Corresponding author. E-mail:
[email protected] Accepted: July 14, 2020 Published: November 18, 2020 Abstract. A new species of Ophiorriza (Rubiaceae) from southern Western Ghats, Copyright: © 2020 Anoop Puthupar- India is here described and illustrated. Ophiorriza meenachilarensis is similar to O. ampil Balan, Aloor Jose Robi, Ginu eriantha, from which it differs in its herbaceous habit (vs. shrubby habit), densely Joseph. This is an open access, peer- villous-hirsute stem (vs. pubescent-glabrous stem), entire stipule (vs. bifid stipule), reviewed article published by Firenze short-peduncled cymes (vs. comparatively long-peduncled cymes), unscented flowers University Press (http://www.fupress. (vs. scented flowers) and corolla tube with a ring of hairs at the middle of the tube com/webbia) and distributed under the (vs. corolla tube without a ring of hairs). A detailed description, illustrations, ecological terms of the Creative Commons Attri- observations, and geographic distribution are provided. bution License, which permits unre- stricted use, distribution, and reproduc- tion in any medium, provided the origi- Keywords: Ophiorrhizeae, Camptothecin, Kerala, Rubioideae, Vagamon hills.