Plant Biodiversity Still Alive

Today I had a full audience with my friend and students discussing plant diversity. In the morning Mr. Mathew Wong a businessman turned naturalist came to discuss the possibility of describing a new rafflesia species from Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia. This species is closely allied to Rafflesia kerrii but differs from it in (a) five prominent tongue-like appendages coming out from the rim of the diaphragm (b) two circles of warts on the diaphragm (c) twice branched ramenta on the upper portion of perigone lobes (d) number of processi, amongst others. Then my PhD graduate student, Ms Lee Gaik Ee came in smiling and thinking that she might have discovered a new species of Leujenea (Liverwort), a specimen collected by a Japanese collector some times back. Of course it is possible to get suprises or bonuses like this in a systematic study of especially Malaysian liverwort, a much neglected bryophytes. After all no Malaysian is studying liverwort in Malaysia to-day except her. I urged her to start describing and illustrating it and possibly get published as a prerequisite for her PhD work. Then Ms Aishah Hanum came in smiling too, thinking about her molecular studies of Lycopodiaceae. As far as we know there is no molecular study on this group of fern-allies. Before lunch Mr. Yasser Mohamad Hassan, my Egyptian MS student came in to hand his thesis on systematic studies of the genera Kayea and Mesua (Guttiferae), He too found some new records of Malaysian taxa and possibly new species of Kayea. One obvious bonus is to combine Mesua corneri Kochummen with Kayea, a combination which we urged the late Mr. K. M. Kochummen to do some years ago. Late in the evening my MS student Ms. Anisa from Yemen came in to hand me her final draft of her thesis on systematics of Neolitsea. She thinks Neolitsea sp. of Kochummen is a variety of a variable N. cassia (incl N. zeylanica) and specimens collected from Gunung Brinchang, Pahang may prove to be different from the other species recognised.