Corresponding author: Xian-Chun Zhang (
Academic editor: A. Troia
A new species of spikemoss from Yunnan Province of China,
Shalimov AP, Zhu Y-M, Zhang M-H, Zhang X-C (2019)
The initial critical taxonomic revision of Chinese
During field trips in Yunnan, we collected an unknown
The new species belongs to subgenus
Herbarium specimens, silica gel and living materials were collected from Longquan Forest Park of Yimen (Yunnan province), in evergreen forest at
For study of spore morphology, scanning electron microscopy (
In this study, we sampled 28 taxa, representing almost all Chinese species with dimorphic strobili. Total genomic DNA was isolated from silica-dried material using the Plant Genomic DNA Kit (Tiangen Biotech, Beijing, China) following the manufacturer’s protocols. For each species, we attempted to amplify three chloroplast gene regions (
Phylogenetic tree of combined dataset (
The new species resembles
CHINA, Yunnan Province, Yimen County, Longquan Forest Park, 9 Feb 2017,
Plants terrestrial, evergreen. Main stems reddish, creeping or suberect, stems 15–25 cm long, 0.6–1.0 mm in diam., branches stramineous.
Dianzhong means central Yunnan in Chinese: the type locality (Yimen) is in the central Yunnan area which is centered on the Provincial capital city Kunming.
Distribution of
The combined data matrix included up to 2045 nucleotides for each of the 37 taxa with 374 parsimony informative sites (374/2045 = 18.29%), consistency index (CI) = 0.66, retention index (RI) = 0.80, when the gaps were treated as missing data. The tree recovered from maximum likelihood (
The 50% majority rule consensus tree derived from maximum likelihood showing the position of
Morphologically, the shape and margin of ventral and dorsal leaves of
Molecular data showed that
Finally, mega- and microspores of
Morphological characters of
Characters |
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Main stems | creeping, up to 35 cm | erect or ascending, (15–)30–40(–50) cm | creeping, 15–25 cm | erect or ascending, 10–20 cm |
Axillary leaves | ovate or triangular, 2–3 × 0.6–1.2 mm | ovate or triangular, 2–3.2 × 0.9–1.6 mm | ovate, 1.1–2.2 × 0.4–0.8 mm | ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 1–2.5 × 0.6–1.6 mm |
Base of axillary leaf | denticulate | denticulate or ciliolate | with a few long cilia | long ciliolate |
Dorsal leaves | ovate-lanceolate or ovate, 1.4–2.2 × 0.4–0.8 mm | obliquely ovate, 2.4–3.4 × 1.2–1.8 mm | ovate to broadly ovate, 1.2–1.9 × 0.5–1.0 mm | ovate or ovate-elliptic, 1–1.2 × 0.4–0.8 mm |
Base of dorsal leaf | obliquely cordate, denticulate to ciliolate | obliquely cordate, denticulate or ciliolate | obliquely subcordate or cordate, ciliolate | subcordate or obtuse, ciliolate, |
Apex of dorsal leaf | aristate, arista ca. 1 mm long | acuminate, aristate, or cuspidate | aristate, arista 0.3–0.6 mm long | acuminate or aristate, arista 0.3–0.6 mm long |
Ventral leaves | oblong, 2.2–3.5 × 1.6–2 mm, apex obtuse or subacute | oblong-ovate or oblong, 3.4–4.4 × 1.6–2.2 mm, acute or obtuse | ovate-oblong, 1.7–3.9 × 0.7–1.6, apex acute | ovate-triangular, 1.6–3.8 × 0.6–1.6 mm, apex acute or acuminate |
Acroscopic base of ventral leaf | shortly ciliolate in basal portion, elsewhere entire | denticulate or ciliolate | long ciliolate | rather long ciliolate at base, subentire upward |
Basiscopic base of ventral leaf | sparsely ciliolate at base | entire | slightly auriculate in base, margin entire | entire or with 1 or 2 cilia at base |
Strobili | 3.5–10 × 3.2–4.4 mm | 4–16 × 1.4–2.4 mm | 3.2–4.0 × 2.3–3.5 mm | 6–8 × 2–3 mm |
Morphological characters of mega- and microspores of
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Megaspores: proximal and distal surfaces | verrucae | verrucae | verrucae | verrucae |
Megaspores: micro-sculptures | vermiculate | spinulose | densely echinate | vermiculate |
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Microspores: proximal and distal surfaces | irregularly sized and spaced verrucae | irregularly sized and spaced verrucae | irregular size verrucae | irregularly sized and spaced verrucae |
Microspores: micro-sculptures | dense spinules | not present | blunt spinules | dense spinules |
1 | Main stems creeping or suberect, fertile stems not erect |
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– | Main stems creeping, fertile stems erect |
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2 | Ventral leaves strongly overlapping stems and branches, basiscopic base exauriculate and margins ciliolate |
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– | Ventral leaves not overlapping stems and branches, basiscopic base slightly auriculate and margins entire or ciliolate |
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3 | Plants 40–50 cm long, main stems unbranched in lower to middle part, with stolons at bases, basiscopic base of ventral leaves slightly auriculate, acroscopic base denticulate or ciliolate at margins |
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– | Plants about 15–25 cm long, main stems branched from near base, rhizophores restricted to lower part of stem, basiscopic base ventral leaves entire, acroscopic base rather long ciliolate at margins |
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We are grateful to Dr. Dmitry A. German (Heidelberg University, Heidelberg & Altai State University, Barnaul) for fruitful comments on a draft of this manuscript, Miss Huixia Dong for the line drawing, and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 31670205), and the joiner author was sponsored by CAS-TWAS President’s Fellowship for International PhD Students.
Information of the plant materials used in this study is presented in the following order: taxon name, locality (if available), collection number (if available),