RESEARCH COMMUNICATION Rediscovery, resurrection and lectotypification of endemic Isoetes sampathkumarnii L. N. Rao from India Sachin M. Patil 1,2 , Satish S. Patil 3 , Suresh K. Patel 4 & Kishore S. Rajput 1* 1 Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara 390 002, India 2 Department of Botany, Modern College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Ganeshkhind Pune 411 053, India 3 Department of Botany, Doodhsakhar Mahavidyalaya, Bidri 416 208, India 4 Department of Botany, Gujarat Arts and Science College, Ellis Bridge, Ahmedabad 380 006, India *Email: ks.rajput15@gmail.com ARTIC LE HISTORY Received: 22 June 2021 Accepted: 12 September 2021 Available online: 30 September 2021 KEYWORDS Karnataka Jambughoda wildlife Velum Retculate spores ABSTRACT An interestng species of Isoetes was collected from Jambughoda, Wildlife Sanctuary, Gujarat. Afer a review of literature and comparison of the morphological characters with type specimens, it was identfed as I. sampathkumarnii L. N. Rao. It is endemic species of south India and rediscovered afer a lapse of 63 years. The species shows several features that make it unique in the genus. Earlier, I. sampathkumarnii was also treated as synonym of I. coromandelina L.f. and I. sahyadrii Mahabala. However, it has an idiosyncratc velum character and spore ornamentaton that makes it diferent from other species. Hence, the authors resurrected it as a distnct species. The original material is ambiguous hence, a lectotype of I. sampathkumarnii has been designated here. Introducton Isoetes is an interesting and unique pteridophyte, popularly known as ‘quillworts’ or ‘Merlin’s grass’. Available literature indicates that nearly 300–350 species are distributed worldwide, of which 19 species, one subspecies and four varieties have been documented from India (1). Among these, only four species have been recognized viz., I. coromandelina L.f., I. dixitii Shende, I. sahyadrii Mahabale and I. udupiensis (2). All the Indian taxa are described based on velum characters, megaspore ornamentation and chromosome counts. However, several species are published by earlier researchers that are yet to be recognized (1, 2) and accepted as distinct species, of which the I. sampathkumarnii is one of them. The status of I. sampathkumarnii is changing from time to time because after its description as a new species, no reports were found in other parts of the state or country. Initially, It was (3, 4) merged under I. coromandelina. Later, lectotypification and epitypification of I. sahyadriensis Mahabale (=I. sahayadrii) was proposed and merged all the species having reticulate spores including I. sampathkumarnii (5). Further, it was mentioned that, uncertainty about the status of I. sampathkumarnii, which is characterized by the presence of disconnected ridges on the megaspores. The lectotypification and epitypification proposed (5) were later rejected (6). The authors of the present study agree with this (6) and concluded that I. sampathkumarnii stands as a distinct species in the reticulate complex of Isoetes (Fig. 1). During the survey of pteridophytes from Gujarat, an interesting specimen of Isoetes was collected in September and October 2017 for the first time and subsequently observed regularly till date. After comparing the characters, type specimens and spore characteristics, it was identified as I. sampathkumarnii L. N. Rao. Therefore, in the present communication, the authors report it as a rediscovery of I. sampathkumarnii and also proposed the resurrection of the species. It was found that typification of I. sampathkumarnii was not designated earlier. Hence, a lectotype has been designated here. Materials and Methods Collection of plant materials Isoetes sampathkumarnii was collected from Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary during 2017–20. For comparative study, I. panchganiensis was collected from Panhala Fort, Kolhapur during 2018–19. © Patl et al (2021). This is an open-access artcle distributed under the terms of the Creatve Commons Atributon License, which permits unrestricted use, distributon and reproducton in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited (htps://creatvecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). PLANT SCIENCE TODAY, 2021 Vol 8(4): 900–904 https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.2021.8.4.1343 ISSN 2348-1900 (online) HORIZON e-Publishing Group