WII Records Plant Species 'Ophiopogon japonicus' for the First Time in India, from Arunachal Pradesh

14 September 2026National

Researchers from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the Uluberia Botanical Institute Herbarium, West Bengal, recorded Ophiopogon japonicus (Thunb.) Ker Gawl. for the first time in India, from West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh, in the Eastern Himalaya. An evergreen perennial herb of the Asparagaceae family, commonly called dwarf lilyturf or mondo grass, it grows in dense clumps and is otherwise known from China, Japan and Korea at elevations of 200-2,800 metres. Its roots, Ophiopogonis Radix or Maidong, are used in traditional East Asian medicine. The paper appeared in Discover Plants, following a run of Arunachal first-records including the snowtrout Schizopygopsis waddellii from Tawang.

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The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) was established in 1982 at Dehradun, Uttarakhand, as an autonomous institution under MoEFCC | Arunachal Pradesh's capital is Itanagar; it attained full statehood in 1987 | The Himalaya is one of India's four biodiversity hotspots, alongside the Western Ghats, Indo-Burma and Sundaland

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