Midnapore, March 19 -- Hidden beneath the damp shade of sal forests in West Bengal's West Midnapore district, a tiny plant barely a few millimetres long has quietly rewritten a chapter of Indian botany.
Researchers from Vidyasagar University and collaborating institutions have identified Fossombronia bengalensis, a previously unknown species of liverwort, marking a significant addition to India's bryoflora and underscoring the ecological richness of south-western Bengal's forest ecosystems.
The discovery, published in Phytotaxa (2025), was made by botanists Sk. Rasidul Islam, Amal Kumar Mondal, Devendra Singh and Australian bryologist D. Christine Cargill, following extensive field surveys and morphotaxonomic analysis.
The newly describe...