{"id":122792,"date":"2026-09-04T14:45:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T09:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=122792"},"modified":"2026-09-04T14:53:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T09:23:39","slug":"osbeckia-ulotricha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/osbeckia-ulotricha\/","title":{"rendered":"Osbeckia ulotricha"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Osbeckia ulotricha Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, scientists from the Botanical Survey of India have discovered a new flowering plant in the Western Ghats and named it Osbeckia ulotricha.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Osbeckia ulotricha<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>newly identified flowering plant <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">belonging to the <\/span><b>Melastomataceae family.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has been discovered in the <\/span><b>shola grasslands of the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the <\/span><b>Western Ghats.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Characteristics of Osbeckia ulotricha<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a woolly-haired<\/span><b> species<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> endemic to <\/span><b>elevations of 1,200\u20131,500 metres.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It leaves <\/span><b>clustered at the apex, a sub-globose hypanthium<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (or an almost round flower base) and an <\/span><b>ovary crowned with true bristles,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> meaning fine, stiff hairs at the top.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has an <\/span><b>urn-shaped hypanthium<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (a cup-like flower base) with a neck. The species <\/span><b>flowers and fruits<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> between <\/span><b>February and May<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Habitat:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It grows mainly in the <\/span><b>damp margins<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of <\/span><b>Tropical Montane Wet Temperate Forest<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (shola) and <\/span><b>Montane Temperate Grassland ecosystems<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Key Features of Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Location:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is located in the southern part of the <\/span><b>Western Ghats<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in India, spreading across <\/span><b>Kerala and Tamil Nadu.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reserve was <\/span><b>established in 2001<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and later <\/span><b>included in the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves in 2016<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Vegetation:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It consists of variety of vegetation types such as <\/span><b>tropical evergreen forests, semi-evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, montaneAgasthyamalai B rainforests, and shola-grassland ecosystems.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Rivers:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Important Rivers such as Thamirabarani, Neyyar, and Karamana originate from this region.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The biosphere reserve includes several important protected regions namely; <\/span><b>Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary, Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary, Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary and K<a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/kalakkadmundanthurai-tiger-reserve\/\" target=\"_blank\">alakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve<\/a>.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/wildlife-biodiversity\/botanists-identify-new-woolly-haired-flowering-plant-in-agasthyamala-biosphere-reserve\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">DTE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Osbeckia ulotricha is a newly identified flowering plant belonging to the Melastomataceae family. Read more about Osbeckia ulotricha, Characteristics, Key Features, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":122770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,22,23],"class_list":["post-122792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122792"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122852,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122792\/revisions\/122852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}