Iphigenia stellata is endemic to the Western Ghats of India. It grows in open grasslands at high altitude in the northern Western Ghats. This species has an extent of occurrence of 12,236 km² and an area of occupancy of 68 km². Iphigenia stellata was assessed as Endangered considering its severely fragmented population and distribution and continued decline area of AOO, decreasing population trend and declining habitat quality due to anthropogenic activities. The species is harvested for medicinal and research purposes and tourism and fire are additional threats to its habitat. Conservation measures such as site protection, action recovery are needed for Iphigenia stellata.

Iphigenia stellata is endemic to the northern Western Ghats. It is distributed from the Dang district of Gujrat to the Western Ghats of Maharashtra.

Sub-populations were recorded from Panchgani, Mahabaleshwar, Kas in Satara district. They are also known from Kolhapur, Khandala, Junnar, Bhimasankar and Don Hill of Dang district, Gujarat. Population size was estimated based upon field observations.

This species is a geophytic ephemeral and mostly occurs on the rocky plateau areas (Bhattarai et al. 2012) with lateritic and basaltic soil. It is associated with Pleocaulis ritcheii. Our observations indicate that the bulb lasts for about 1-2 years.

The major threats to the species are tourist activity, forest fires, land use for residential purposes, and unregulated collection of seeds for colchicine as well as habitat degradation due to road construction, agriculture expansion and climate change are serious threats.

The seeds contain high levels of colchicine. Colchicine is used for medicinal and research purposes. However the data on its market use and trade for medicinal purposes is not documented.

Maintenance of appropriate microhabitats is required for the conservation of this species (Bhattarai et al. 2012). Panchgani tableland and Mahabaleshwar plateaus are included in Conservation Zone. Kas plateau is included in World Natural Heritage Site. But there is no special measure yet for conservation of sub-populations of this species. Seed dormancy is a major issue and hence research is required to break the dormancy and create a population. It has been seen in germination experiments that seeds are affected by unknown insects pests. More research is required towards understanding the seed ecology.