Guwahati: A rare endemic flowering plant, missing from scientific records for 180 years, has been rediscovered in Assam, giving botanists a second chance to study and conserve a species once feared lost.
Researchers from Assam University have rediscovered Rungia mastersii, an endemic plant known only from a single specimen collected by British botanist J.W. Masters in 1845.
Since then, the species had never been recorded again, making the latest find one of the most significant botanical rediscoveries in the Northeast in recent years. The study has been published in the international journal Feddes Repertorium.
The herbaceous genus Rungia Nees (Acanthaceae) comprises 88 accepted species worldwide and is distributed mainly across tropical Africa, tropical to subtropical Asia, and the southern Arabian Peninsula. Assam is home to four species: Rungia mastersii, R. pectinata, R. repens and R. tinsukiaensis.
Researchers Kangkan Kumar Das and Debjyoti Bhattacharyya made the rediscovery during field surveys in the Jatinga Hills of Dima Hasao district, where they found a small population of the plant growing on moist, shaded rocky slopes beside a stream at elevations between 900 and 1,250 metres.
What makes the discovery even more striking is that the species survived unnoticed despite decades of botanical exploration in Assam. Until now, scientists knew it only from a single herbarium sheet preserved at the Botanical Survey of India, and the exact location where it was first collected remained a mystery. The Jatinga Hills record is the first confirmed locality for the species.
The researchers located only one population of around 40 plants, suggesting the species is extremely rare. Because so little is known about its distribution, it has not yet been assessed under the IUCN Red List, prompting scientists to call for urgent surveys to determine whether more populations survive in Assam’s forests.
The study also documents the plant’s habitat, flowering pattern and identifying characteristics for the first time since its original discovery, providing a valuable reference for future botanical surveys.
“The species is currently known from a single surviving population in the world, raising urgent concerns over its future survival amid the continuing degradation of the region’s forest ecosystems,” said Kangkan Das.
For conservationists, the rediscovery is more than a scientific curiosity. It is a reminder that the forests of Northeast India continue to conceal species that have escaped notice for generations, reinforcing the region’s status as one of India’s richest—and least explored—biodiversity hotspots.
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