India, Jan. 27 -- In a discovery that reshapes India's botanical geography, scientists have recorded a rare tropical tree species, Goniocheton arborescensn on the Indian mainland for the very first time. Until now, the species was known in India only from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The finding, made at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh, marks a major northward extension of the species' known range and highlights the Northeast as a critical but still underexplored biodiversity frontier.

The discovery was made by botanists Karnan Jeyaprakash and Kaliamoorthy Ravikumar during field surveys at the North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda & Folk Medicine Research (NEIAFMR) campus. Careful comparison with historical herbarium records-including s...