Elon professor, colleague publish new plant species from Mount Kinabalu, Borneo

Peter W. Fritsch, vice president of research and director of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas Herbarium, and Catherine M. Bush, adjunct assistant professor of biology at Elon, published a new plant species in the current issue of the Nordic Journal of Botany.

Peter W. Fritsch, vice president of research and director of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas Herbarium, and Catherine M. Bush, adjunct assistant professor of biology at Elon, published a new plant species in the current issue of the Nordic Journal of Botany.

The paper, entitled “Diplycosia rigidifolia sp. nov. (Ericaceae) from Borneo, Sabah, Malaysia”, is the result of a 2009 field expedition to Mount Kinabalu in search of Diplycosia and Gaultheria species to include in a large DNA analysis of the evolutionary relationships of the “wintergreen” group of plants (published in 2011; Systematic Botany 36: 1-14).

Diplycosia rigidifolia was initially identified as a more commonly encountered species until further study showed it was morphologically and genetically distinct. The species is endemic to Mount Kinabalu and is only known from a single population, making its conservation status “Critically Endangered”.