Diatoms of the Hot Springs of Badrinath, Himalayas

Very little data is available on the algal flora of the hot springs in India. From few publications it is evident that Kirtikar (1886) was, perhaps, the first person to report an alga (Conferva thermalis f. birdwoodii) from this habitat. Later in the year 1938, Drouet enumerated some blue green algae from the material collected by Hutchinson in Ladak (in Western or Indian Tibet) and in Punjab during the Yale North India Expediton. These were the only reports available till 1947 when a contribution towards the study of the thermal flora of India was made by Gonzalves. She recorded a few species from the hot springs of Vajreshwari, near Bombay. In the next year (1948) she published a report on the algal flora of the thermal springs at Palli, in Kolaba district, in Proceedings of the Indian Science Congress. Recently she published a series of papers on the algal flora of twelve groups of hot springs in Western India, in collaboration with Thomas (1965 a-g). During the same year Prasad & Srivastava (1965) described 24 taxa of blue greens from four Himalayan hot springs viz., i) Tapovan (temperature ranging between 45-50°C), ii) Badrinath (temp, of 55-60°C), iii) Manikaran (temp, upto 97°C, the highest temperature known from anywhere in India) and iv) Bashist (temp, of 47-50°C). Fan (1956) referred to a specimen of Calothrix parietina (Naeg.) Thuret collected by Suxena from the hot springs of Badrinath, Himalayas. The present paper deals with the diatoms collected from hot springs in Badrinath. The material was gathered by the senior author in 1955, mostly from a spring known as Taptkund. The temperature of the spring varied between 55-60°C. In this communication 62 taxa have been described along with their records of distribution. Of the taxa reported two varieties are new to science. Sixteen species have been reported for the first time from this country.