Valsad is a district town situated south of the Tapti river on 72 50” E and 20 30” N in the southern part of Gujarat State about 194 Km. North of Mumbai on Ahmedabad-Mumbai broad gauge railway line. About 3 Km West of Valsdad town is an Arabian sea and in the east there is Ahemdabad-Mumbai National Highway [1-3]. Geographically Valsad belongs to the western coastal land of the Deccan peninsula. The area is traversed by Damanganga, Purna, Auranga, Kaveri, and Ambica rivers and several small tributaries. The area consists of hills and plain land about 12 Km above minimum sea level. 41 villages have been explored in the present study [4-7]. Salmalia rubra (Buch.-Ham.) S. Dutta & P. Harvey belongs to family Malvaceae. It is commonly known as Katesavar, deciduous tree. It is popularly known as Red Silk Cotton tree, Indian Kapok tree, Shalmali, Semal, Simal, Shemul and well distributed in Temperate and Tropical Asia, Africa and Australia. It has a place among the five sacred plants of ‘Panchwati’ and is an important multipurpose tree providing food, fodder, fuel and fibre [8-10]. Besides, spiritual, ecological and commercial importance; it also possesses socio-cultural and ethno-medicinal importance in various tribal communities of the world. Almost all parts of the plant i.e., root, stem-bark, leaf, flower, fruit, seed [7,11-13].

During plant exploration in Dharampur about three individuals had observed. Specimen has been collected and observed differences from Salmalia rubra (Buch.-Ham.) S. Dutta & P. Harvey of which they differ however on flower colour. The specimen with yellow colour petals has brought to forma level.

Holotype: DH-1045

Tall deciduous tree; bark covered with hard sharp conical prickels. Leaves large; leaflets 3-7 entire, glabrous, lanceolate, cuspidate, acute, leaves about 20 to 25 cm in length. Flowers numerous, near the ends of the branches [14-17]. Calyx thick, usually 2-3 loabed; lobes rounded, densely silky within, glabrous, size 2-4 cm. Corolla yellow, 7-10 × 3-4 cm, slight tomantose outside; petals elliptic-oblong, recurved, with close parallel veins. Capsule ovoid downy, 5 valved numerous, size, 10-15 × 4.5-5 cm, ovoid [11,18-20].

Distribution

Nani Vahiyal, Taluka Dharampur, Dist. Valsad, Gujarat, India.

GPS location

Latitude 20.45211, Longitude 73.14714 and Altitude: 199.9 feet (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Distribution in Nani Vahiyal.

Ecology

Tree is in fact a boon to environment by providing shelter and food to animals, reducing pollution, cooling homes, attracting positive microliter and thus plays an important role in balancing ecosystem. However, few traditions and commercial overexploitation is leading to an untimely demise of this multipurpose tree species [12,21].

Eponymy

Named in honour of Prof. Dr. Hitesh Solanki from the Gujarat University, Gujarat who made many valuable contributions in Research. He has valuable contribution in field of algae, taxonomy and Ecology. He has contribution of more than 80 Research papers [22] (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Habit; B. Flowering Canopy; C and D. Flowers.

Authors are thankful to Mr. Rupesh RM and Umerfaruq MQ for their valuable help.