Researchers at Botanical Survey of India have rediscovered a rare plant from a remote district of Anjaw in Arunachal Pradesh which is often called the "Lipstick Plant" (Aeschynanthus monetaria Dunn).
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It was first identified by British botanist Stephen Troyte Dunn in 1912 based on plant samples collected in Arunachal Pradesh by another English botanist, Isaac Henry Burkill.
Some of the species in the genus Aeschynanthus are known as lipstick plants because of their tubular red corollas
Aeschynanthus Jack (Gesne-riaceae), an epiphytic evergreen tropical Asian genus with 174 species, is found mostly from southern China to tropical Asia. Twenty-six taxa represent the plant's genus in India.
Aeschynanthus monetaria is a species that had not been collected from India since Burkill in 1912.
The genus name Aeschynanthus is derived from the Greek aischyne or aischyn, which means shame or embarrassment, and anthos, which means flower.
The fleshy orbicular leaves of Aeschynanthus monetaria Dunn are morphologically distinctive and unique among other Aeschynanthus species known from India, with a greenish top surface and a purplish-green below surface.
The term monetaria in its name refers to the appearance of the plant's leaves, which are mint-like.