Aristolochia L., a member of the family Aristolochiaceae consists of about 500 species, and is distributed in tropical and temperate Asia, Africa, Europe and America (Heywood 1993). In Bangladesh, Aristolochia is represented by only three species, namely A. indica L., A. saccata Wall. and A. tagala Cham. (Hooker 1886, Prain 1903, Heinig 1925). Recently, during the course of scrutiny of
... [Show full abstract] Aristolochia specimens deposited at the Bangladesh National Herbarium (DACB), the authors came across three interesting specimens. After critical examination, these specimens have been identified as Aristolochia elegans Mast. It should be noted here that seeds of this species were first collected by Prof. M. Salar Khan from the Chittagong Hill Tracts area in wild state in 1995. The seeds were then sown in the Botanic Garden of the University of Dhaka; plants grew and flowered. The specimens deposited at the DACB were collected from those plants in 1997. Aristolochia elegans was not reported earlier from the territory of Bangladesh in the relevant literature of this region, viz. Hooker (1886), Prain (1903), Heinig (1925), Cowan (1928), Raizada (1941), Datta and Mitra (1953), Sinclair (1955), Khan and Afza (1968), Khan and Banu (1972), Huq and Khan (1984), Khan and Hassan (1984), Alam (1988), Khan et al. (1994), Mia and Khan (1995), Rahman and Hassan (1995), Rahman and Uddin (1997), Uddin et al. (1998), Uddin and Rahman (1999), Rashid et al. (2000), Khan and Huq (2001), Uddin et al. (2003), and Rahman (2004a, b). It is being reported here as a new record for the country and a new addition to the Flora of Bangladesh. The specimens have been preserved at the DACB. The detailed description and illustrations of the taxon prepared from the examined
