A team of researchers from the University of Calicut has discovered a new species of wild ginger endemic to the Silent Valley National Park on the Western Ghats, one of the biodiversity hotspots in India. The discovery, reported by M. Sabu, V.P. Thomas, and K.M. Prabhu Kumar of the Department of Botany, has been published in a recent issue of Phytokeys , a journal on biodiversity research. The new species, named Amomum nilgiricum , is a member of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) consisting of 53 genera and over 1,200 species, many of which are widely used as spices, in medical formulations, or simply for decoration. A high-altitude variety, Amomum nilgiricum is found only in the evergreen forests of the Nilgiri Hills above 1,200 m. According to the authors of the paper, it is a clump-forming herb with leafy shoots and 200 cm to 400 cm tall. The most notable feature of the plant is the presence of long ligules (the thin outgrowth at the junction of the leaf and stalk) that reach up to 9 cm and small flowers with a long corolla tube. Almost all parts of the plant are hairy. It flowers and fruits during the period from March to November. Prof. Sabu, who has been working on the Zingiberaceae family for over 20 years, said the newly discovered species was critically endangered. The natural habitat was limited to an area less than 10 sq km and severely fragmented, he said. The researchers have reported a continuous decline in the quality of habitat and extent of occurrence. The major threats to the species are forest fire and clearing of trekking path in forests. Attempts by the research team to conserve the species outside its natural habitat were unsuccessful. Urgent conservation measures have been recommended to save the plant from extinction. With over 200 species and 2,000 accessions in its collection, the University of Calicut is one of the largest repositories of the Zingiberaceae family in India.