Corresponding authors: Bing Liu (
Academic editor: E. J. de Lirio
We collected an unusual new plant of
Yang Z, Jin W-Y, Liu B, Ferguson DK, Yang Y (2021) Big fruits with tiny tepals: An unusual new species of Lauraceae from southwestern China. PhytoKeys 179: 129–143.
The
Recently, we collected both flower and fruit materials of one notable tree species while conducting field investigations in southeastern Yunnan, China. Further morphological and molecular phylogenetic studies indicate that this species is a new species of
We conducted field collections and morphological observations, obtained voucher specimens, preserved flowers in FAA, and dried leaf materials with silica gel. Photographs of vegetative and reproductive characters were taken with a Nikon camera (D700). The preserved flowers were dissected and observed, and photographs were taken under a stereo microscope (Leica S8APO).
To determine the systematic position of our new species, we conducted a phylogenetic study using nrITS,
Sequences obtained in this study and their vouchers. All voucher specimens are deposited in PE.
Species | ITS |
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Voucher specimen | Locality | |
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Bing Liu 2447 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 1584 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 2358 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 1266 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 1980 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 4726 | China, Yunnan | |
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X.H.Jin IN004 | Indonesia. | |
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Y.Yang, T.T.Sun & W.Y.Jin 2016110811 | China, Taiwan | |
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Y.Yang, T.T.Sun & W.Y.Jin 2016110810 | China, Taiwan | |
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Bing Liu 2133 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 1827 | China, Guangdong | |
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Bing Liu 1950 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 1524 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 1490 | China, Yunnan | ||
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Bing Liu 2215 | China, Yunnan | ||
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Bing Liu 2232 | China, Hubei | |
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Y.Yang, T.T.Sun & W.Y.Jin 2016110836 | China, Taiwan | |
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Bing Liu 1477 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 2050 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 2052 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 2417 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 2532 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 1239 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 1988 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 2227 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 2270 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 1570 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 2242 | China, Yunnan | |
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Bing Liu 2224 | China, Hubei | |
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Bing Liu 1822 | China, Hainan |
Total DNA was extracted from silica-gel-dried leaves using Tiangen Plant Genomic DNA kits. To amplify the nrITS,
Sequences were edited with Sequencher 4.1.4 (Gene Codes Corporation, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA), aligned using MAFFT 7 (
The line drawing was done manually with a black ink pen. Illustrations and photos showing morphological characters were edited and merged in Adobe Photoshop CS2 ver. 9.0. Phylogenetic trees were browsed and adjusted in FigTree ver. 1.4.0 (
Extinction risk was assessed using IUCN categories and criteria (
China. Yunnan Province: Jinping County, Mengla, Tuomazhai,
This species is similar to
Trees (Fig.
Morphology of
Anatomy of a flower of
Line-drawing showing details of
So far, this species has only been found in southeastern Yunnan, China (Fig.
A map showing the distribution of
This species occurs in montane evergreen forests at an altitudinal range of 900–980 m. It blooms in April, and the fruits mature from September to December.
The specific epithet ‘
China. Yunnan Province: Jinping County, Mengla, Tuomazhai, 8 Apr 2014, fruit,
There is only one population with 10 mature individuals occupying ca. 400 m2. Fewer than 10 juvenile individuals were found. All the individuals have not been protected in any nature reserve, and a rubber plantation exists nearby the population. Based on IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria (
We finally obtained 30 sequences of nrITS, 27 sequences of
The best-fit nucleotide substitution model of the three markers for both
Analysis | nrITS |
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HKY+F+I+G4 | HKY+F+G4 | HKY+F+I |
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HKY+F+G4 | HKY+F+G4 | HKY+F |
Information of nrITS,
Item | nrITS |
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all | |
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745 | 896 | 763 | 2404 |
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149 | 158 | 22 | 329 |
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98 | 57 | 13 | 168 |
Our phylogenetic study gave rise to
Maximum Likelihood tree based on nrITS,
Bayesian tree based on nrITS,
Modern taxonomy is based on phylogeny. There is no phylogeny with full sampling of
The genus
The genus
1 | Leaves, inflorescences, and twigs subglabrous; fruits large, up to 8 cm long, having tiny tepals ca. 2–2.5 mm long |
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– | Leaves, inflorescences, and twigs usually tomentose or pubescent; fruits smaller, usually ca. 1–4 cm, possessing bigger tepals 5 mm or longer |
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2 | Fruits 3–4 cm long |
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– | Fruits 1–2 cm long |
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3 | Leaves asymmetrical at the base; tepals woody, ca. 15 mm long |
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– | Leaves symmetrical at the base; tepals coriaceous, 5–6 mm long |
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We thank Henk van der Werff of Missouri Botanical Garden and George Staples of Harvard University for their valuable suggestions and Y.F.Li for his kind help with the line-drawing. We are also grateful to L.Li, L.Assis and J.G.Rohwer for their constructive suggestions on the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [31970205, 31470301, 31770211] and the
Figures S1–S8, Tables S1–S3
Phylogenetic trees and tables