A NEW VARIETY OF IPOMOEA TRILOBA (CONVOLVULACEAE) FROM DECCAN PLATEAU, INDIA

Ipomoea triloba L. var. deccansis D. K. Londhe & A.S. Bhukatar, var. nov. are described here as a new variety of Ipomoea triloba L. (Convolvulaceae) from the Western Ghat of the Deccan plateau, North Maharashtra, India. Observations in the field as well as in cultivation for three years showed that the variety retains its diagnostic characteristics and no intermediate exists. Detailed descriptions and photo plates are provided to facilitate the identification of this new variety.


Introduction
Ipomoea L. is one of the dominant genera in the family Convolvulaceae, popularly known as "Morning Glory". It represents ca. 650 species and is mainly distributed in tropical and warm temperate regions of the world (Mabberley, 2008). The World Flora Online includes ca.3000 scientific names of species rank for this genus of which ca.714 are accepted names (WFO, 2020). Out of 2537, records retrieved in the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, ca. 670 accepted species names entered for Ipomoea (WCSP, 2019). India represented 60 species previously (Santapau and Henry, 1973), but subsequent records of Ipomoea mombassana Vatke (Biju et al., 1998), I. parasitica (Kunth) G. Don (Biju, 2002) and I. ochracea (Lindl.) G. Don, I. tenuipes Verdc.  have increased the number of species to about ca. 65. Taxonomists from Maharashtra state reported about 37 species of Ipomoea (Cooke, 1905;Naik, 1998;Almeida, 2001;Shimple et al., 2012Shimple et al., , 2014Undiwade and Bhadane, 2017;Kattee et al., 2019).
Authors accidentally came across with an interesting specimen of Ipomoea during investigation, at western ghats of Deccan plateau of North Maharashtra, India. The collected specimens were compared with the herbarium (BAMU, BSI). We searched through online photographs as well as Ipomoea species occurred in regional online flora, and plant list, IPNI, JSTOR portal, monograph of Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) in the New World (Wood et al., 2020.) hence revealed that it resembles with I. triloba L. but differ in its morphological traits that turn out it as a new variety.

Material and Methods
Materials were collected in the months of September to January from 2019-2021 at western edge of Deccan Plateau of Western Ghat North Maharashtra, India. All specimens collected were processed using standard herbarium techniques (Jain and Rao, 1977). The authors have collected and recorded the necessary data regarding habitat, habit, morphological variations, phenology and geographic information such as coordinates of the type localities during the field visits. The comprehensive photography of the morphological characters was taken by using D6000 camera (Nikon, Japan) and CMZ-6 stereomicroscope (Labomed, Japan). The scientific novelty of the specimens was confirmed by a critical survey of the literature (Hooker, 1882;Cooke, 1905;Naik, 1998;Almeida, 2001;Singh et al., 2001) and comparing with specimens available at BSI, BAMU and images of specimens available in the virtual database of JSTOR (2020), Ipomoea species occurred in regional online flora, and plant list, IPNI, monograph of Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) in the New World (Wood et al., 2020.) Edinburgh herbarium (https://data.rbge.org.uk/search/ herbarium/) and Kew Herbarium (http:// apps.kew.org/herbcat/ navigator.do).
( Fig. 1) The new variety is morphologically allied to Ipomoea triloba L. but distinct by having tap root with adventitious roots, completely white petals, completely green sepals, stem, petiole and pedicle, dimorphic leaves, bract persistent, white stamens, hairy style, globose stigma, glabrous ovary, greenish and glabrous capsule, persistent bract, marginal pilous seeds, longer corolla, peduncles longer than petiole.
Etymology: The variety epithet 'Deccansis' refer collected from Western Ghats of Deccan plataue North Maharashtra, India.

Conservation status:
Ipomoea triloba L. Var. deccansis is only reported from single locality from Deccan plateau. It grows in open wet shady rocky slopes. No detailed data is available on the distribution and population of this variety, hence assessed here as Data Deficient (DD) as per the guidelines of IUCN (2019).