A new plant species that is endemic to the Philippines has been discovered in the subalpine forest of Palawan.
Pastor Malabrigo Jr., a professor at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) College of Forestry and Natural Resources, and curator of the UPLB Museum of Natural History, recently described the new species in the international scientific journal Springer Link.
Named Scaevola subalpina, the new species of plant was discovered in the Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape.
It is so far the only Philippine-endemic species of four species of the genus Scaevola that are native to the country, Malabrigo said in the journal.
Scaevola subalpina is seen as "most similar to Scaevola glabra, a species endemic to the Hawaiian archipelago."
"Both species grow at high elevations and share solitary or few-flowered inflorescences and yellow corollas but can be differentiated by flower size and structure. The flowers of S. subalpina are much shorter, and the corolla is half open from the base (as in most other species of the genus), whereas in S. glabra the corolla is fused to form a tube that splits open in only the distal portion to form lobes," described Malabrigo.
Moreover, S. subalpina is described as an erect shrub, with spirally arranged leaves. Its flowers are a combination of solitary-flowered to few-flowered inflorescences, completely glabrous stems and leaves, externally glabrous corollas, with yellow coloration, lilac ridges, and yellow to purple lobes.
Malabrigo said the new species "appears to be critically endangered," the most threatened conservation status assigned by the International Union for Conservation of Nature or IUCN to a species that still exists in the wild.
The discovery of the new species was made possible by a project funded by the Forest Foundation Philippines in partnership with the Pro-Seeds Development Association Inc., Mt. Mantalingahan Protected Landscape, and Palawan Council for Sustainable Development.