OPEN ACCESS The Journal of Threatened Taxa is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use of artcles in any medium, reproducton, and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Distribution of Rhododendron falconeri Hook. F. (Ericales: Ericaceae) in Yuksam-Dzongri trekking corridor of Khangchendzonga National Park, Sikkim, India Aseesh Pandey & Hemant K. Badola 26 May 2018 | Vol. 10 | No. 6 | Pages: 11753–11759 10.11609/jot.3911.10.6.11753-11759 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies and Guidelines visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints contact <[email protected]> Publisher & Host Partners Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2018 | 10(6): 11753–11759 Distribution of Rhododendron falconeri Hook. F. (Ericales: Ericaceae) in Yuksam-Dzongri trekking corridor Communication of Khangchendzonga National Park, Sikkim, India ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Aseesh Pandey 1 & Hemant K. Badola 2 OPEN ACCESS 1,2 G.B. Pant Natonal Insttute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Sikkim Regional Center, Pangthang, Gangtok, East Sikkim, Sikkim 737101, India 2 Present address: D-408, Aditya Doonshire Apartments, Sailok Phase II, GMS Road, Dehradun, Utarakhand 248001, India 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected] Abstract: Rhododendron falconeri Hook.f. [= Azalea falconeri (Hook.f.) Kuntze] is a potental candidate for conservaton in Sikkim State due to its threatened status and startling features especially during the fowering period. We studied the status and habitats for R. falconeri across the Yuksam-Dzongri trekking corridor in Khangchendzonga Natonal Park, Sikkim eastern Himalaya. These fndings will help to develop conservaton strategies for R. falconeri and landscape beautfcaton sustainability in the long run. Keywords: Eastern Himalaya, Khangchendzonga Natonal Park, protected area, Rhododendrons. DOI: htp://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3911.10.6.11753-11759 Editor: P. Lakshminarasimhan, Botanical Survey of India, Pune, India. Date of publicaton: 26 May 2018 (online & print) Manuscript details: Ms # 3911 | Received 22 November 2017 | Final received 04 April 2018 | Finally accepted 08 May 2018 Citaton: Pandey, A. & H.K. Badola (2018). Distributon of Rhododendron falconeri Hook. f. (Ericales: Ericaceae) in Yuksam-Dzongri trekking corridor of Khangchend- zonga Natonal Park, Sikkim, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 10(6): 11753–11759; htp://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3911.10.6.11753-11759 Copyright: © Pandey & Badola 2018. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this artcle in any medium, reproduc- ton and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton. Funding: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC), Government of India under the Natonal Mission on Himalayan Studies (NMHS) program, through Central Himalayan Environmental Associaton (CHEA), Utarakhand, India. Competng interests: The author declares no competng interests. Author Details: Aseesh Pandey (PhD, Botany) is associated with the G.B. Pant Natonal Insttute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Sikkim Regional Center (GBPNIHESD-SRC), as a researcher. His research areas are to understand the paterns of plant diversity, ecological and threat assessment of High- value Medicinal Plants (HMPs), of the Himalaya. H.K. Badola is former Senior Level Scientst (Conservaton of Biodiversity) and Scientst in-charge, GBPNIHESD, Sikkim Unit has over three decades research experience dealing with various aspects biodiversity conservaton and management, especially including the threatened taxa, in the Himalayas. Presently, he is a freelance expert of Biodiversity, Bioculture and Climate Change. Author Contributon: Study conceptualized by AP, HKB; extensive feld exploratory work done by AP and AP, HKB developed the manuscript. Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the Director, G.B. Pant Natonal Insttute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development for providing necessary facilites to undertake this research. We highly appreciate the cooperaton from the Forest Environment and Wildlife Management Department, Sikkim State. We also acknowledge the assistance from Mr Bhim P. Pandey, Mr B.L. Subba and support received from the local peoples during feld surveys. 11753 Rhododendron falconeri in Kangchendzonga NP Pandey & Badola INTRODUCTION based on its distributon and status assessment. The Rhododendrons (family Ericaceae) comprise only 1% of the fowering plants (Pradhan & Lachungpa STUDY AREA 1990). Initally described by Carl Linnaeus in Genera Plantarum in 1737, worldwide, the genus Rhododendron Intensive literature survey was done for the existng encompasses almost 1,000 species (Leach, 1961; informaton related to distributon and availability on Bhatacharyya & Sanjappa 2014). Over 90% of the world Rhododendrons in Sikkim Himalaya. The Yuksam-Dzongri populaton of Rhododendrons are mostly concentrated trekking corridor nestled in the Khangchendzonga in northwestern Himalaya to southeastern Asia with an Natonal Park in western Sikkim between 27.38–27.480N extension to Nepal, northeastern India, eastern Tibet, & 88.22–88.170E; 1,800-4,100 m, was identfed for the northern Burma and western and central China (Leach present study (Fig. 3). This trekking corridor is one of the 1961; Pradhan & Lachungpa 1990; Tiwari & Chauhan most fascinatng destnatons for adventure trekkers in 2006). At present, there are 102 species (Bhatacharyya the northeastern region of the country, for its picturesque & Sanjappa 2014) and 132 taxa of Rhododendron landscapes, ice-clad mountains including the highest L. (82 spp., 25 subsp. and 25 var.) in India (Mao et al. peak of India, Mt. Khangchendzonga, and its wildlife are 2017a,b). According to Sastry & Hajra (2010), in India, the top fascinatons. This trekking corridor is managed Rhododendron species are found in the Himalaya from as eco-friendly plastc free zone and plucking fowers, Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh and in the forested leaves, litering, creatng noise and/or disturbance in mountain tracts of northeastern Indian states (Fig. 1). any form is prohibited as-per-the natonal park norms. Of the total recorded 129 taxa in northeastern India, The forest guards from state forest department, Himal the state of Sikkim harbours the second highest (42) Rakshak (voluntary mountain guardians) along with representatveness of the genus Rhododendron afer state tourism department keep an eye on these issues. Arunachal Pradesh (119); however the genus is not reported from Assam and Tripura (Mao 2010; Sastry & Hajra 2010; Bhatacharyya & Sanjappa 2014; Mao et al. MATERIAL AND METHODS 2017a). Sir Joseph D. Hooker described 34 new species and details of the 43 species including varietes from During the year 2016–2017, diferent feld surveys the Indian region in his monograph, Rhododendron of were conducted in the target area across diferent Sikkim Himalaya, explored during his visits in between seasons and identfed the Rhododendron falconeri 1848 to 1850 (Hooker 1849). These species are naturally Hook.f. as a very valuable and striking species having grown along the temperate to alpine zones and beautfy both the conservaton and aesthetc value. In the feld, the very landscapes (around 1,500–5,000 m). we examined various phenophases of the plant and The 42.55% (3,019km2) of the total geographical confrmed species identfcaton by consultng regional area of Sikkim (7,096km2) is under protected areas foras such as “Sikkim Himalayan Rhododendrons” (Fig. 2) and represented by various Rhododendron (Pradhan & Lachungpa 1990), and “Flowers of the species. The Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve Himalaya” (Polunin & Stainton 2001). Photographs (KBR) harbours 86.78% of the total protected area of diferent phenophases were taken for further and comprises of: (i) the core zone (1,784km2) also delineates as Khangchendzonga Natonal Park (KNP), (ii) the bufer zone (835.92km2) and (iii) the transiton zone (311.20km2) (Badola & Subba 2012). KNP has recently been notfed by UNESCO (on 16.vii.2016) as the only mixed heritage site of India and is therefore an important conservaton area with high ecological, biological diversity, and also contributes to natural and cultural signifcance in the Indian Himalayan region. The present study focuses on (i) the identfcaton of Rhododendron species having conservaton needs and can be utlized for landscape beautfcaton, and (ii) identfcaton of Figure 1. Distributon of rhododendron species across the states of the conservaton and management sites for R. falconeri India 11754 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2018 | 10(6): 11753–11759 Rhododendron falconeri in Kangchendzonga NP Pandey &