JoTT NoTe 4(15): xxxx–xxxx Range extension of Dobinea vulgaris Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don (Anacardiaceae) in eastern Himalaya - an addition to the lora of Meghalaya, India Bikarma Singh 1 , S.K. Borthakur 2 , S.J. Phukan 3 , B.K. Sinha 4 & V.N. Singh 1,3,4,5 Botanical Survey of India, Eastern Regional Circle, Shillong, Meghalaya 793002, India 2 Department of Botany, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam 781014, India Email: 1 bikarmasinghtaxonomy@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 skbgu1@gmail.com, 3 drsphukan@gmail.com, 4 drbksinha2004@yahoo.co.in, 5 always_vivek@rediffmail.com OPEN ACCESS | FREE DOWNLOAD Date of publication (online): 26 December 2012 Date of publication (print): 12 December 2012 ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print) editor: N.P. Balakrishnan Manuscript details: Ms # o2867 Received 07 July 2011 Final received 12 May 2012 Finally accepted 11 October 2012 Citation: Singh, B., S.K. Borthakur, S.J. Phukan, B.K. Sinha & V.N. Singh (2012). Range extension of Dobinea vulgaris Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don (Anacardiaceae) in eastern Himalaya - an addition to the lora of Meghalaya, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(15): xxxx–xxxx. Copyright: © Bikarma Singh, S.K. Borthakur, S.J. Phukan, B.K. Sinha & V.N. Singh 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-proit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication. Acknowledgements: First author gratefully acknowledges Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, New Delhi for inancial support in the form of research fellowship. Authors are indebted to the Director, Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata for encouragement and facilities. Authors also thank the three anonymous reviewers of this article. Provide complete postal address Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | December 2012 | 4(15): xxxx–xxxx xxxx The family Anacardiaceae is circumscribed with 875 species belonging to 70 different genera worldwide, out of which 68 species under 23 genera are found in India (Daniel 2005), and with nine genera and 13 species in Meghalaya (Haridasan & Rao 1985). The genus Dobinea is represented by two species, namely, D. vulgaris Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don and D. delavayi (Baill.) Baill., distributed in tropical and subtropical regions in the world (Singh et al. 2000), of which, only one species (D. vulgaris) has been reported from India (Singh et al. 2000), while D. delavayi is reported as endemic to China (Min & Barfod 2008). During exploratory surveys for plant wealth of Nokrek Biosphere Reserve (NBR) of Meghalaya, an interesting plant belonging to the genus Dobinea Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don (Anacardiaceae) was collected. After critical investigation, it was identiied as Dobinea vulgaris Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don, 1825. The voucher specimens have been deposited in the Herbarium of Botanical Survey of India (ASSAM), at Shillong, Assam. The genus Dobinea has had a rather complex taxonomic history, with placement in three different families, Podoaceae (Takhtajan 1997), tribe Acerineae of the Sapindaceae (Bentham & Hooker 1862); and tribe Dobineae of the Anacardiaceae (Forman 1954; Melchior 1964; Cronquist 1981; Mitchell & Mori 1987). Phylogenetic relationships of the genus were examined based on DNA sequences of the chloroplast rbcL gene and the ITS region of nuclear ribosomal DNA (Pan et al. 2008). Results support the monophyly of Dobinea and its placement in the Anacardiaceae. The plant Dobinea vulgaris was irst published by David Don in ‘Prodromus Florae Nepalensis’ in 1825 from Nepal. Subsequently, the species was recorded from India, Bhutan and China. From India, the species was earlier reported from Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim (Anonymous 2011a,b). A perusal of literature of Kanjilal & Bor (1934), Joseph (1982), Balakrishnan (1981), Haridasan & Rao (1985), and Singh et al. (2010, 2012a,b), followed by herbarium studies, revealed that D. vulgaris is a new record south of Brahmaputra River and for the state of Meghalaya. The repeated random sampling during the present study, resulted in the recording of this plant at two localities, namely core zone at Nokrek Peak (1290m elevation) and buffer zone near Khalakgre Village (987m) of NBR in subtropical moist forests in West Garo Hills District of the state (Fig. 1). The collected specimens have been identiied with the help of ‘Flora of India’ by Singh et al. (2000), and compared with herbarium specimens housed in ASSAM and CAL of Botanical Survey of India. The detailed descriptions of the plant along with photographs are provided to enable its easy