Corresponding author: Huan-Chong Wang (
Academic editor: Karol Marhold
Liu S-Y, Ren Z-T, Zhao C-Y, Hu C-X, Wang H-C (2022)
During our botanical fieldwork to Jiaozishan Mountains in southwest China in August 2018, a showy plant of
The study followed the normal practice of plant taxonomic survey and herbarium taxonomy. Morphological studies of the new species were based on observation of living plants and specimens from the Jiaozishan Mountains in Dongchuan District, northern Yunnan, southwest China. Digital images of type specimens of genus
China. Yunnan Province: Dongchuan District, Jiaozishan Mountains, on screes,
Perennial herbs, cespitose, rhizomatous. Rhizomes slender, simple or branched, glabrous. Stems simple or few branched, 3–10 cm in length, with appressed, simple and minutely forked, 0.05–0.2 mm long trichomes. Basal leaves rosulate, obovate to oblanceolate, withering and deciduous at anthesis. Cauline leaves alternate; petioles blue-purple, glabrous, 1–2.5 mm long; blade ovate, obovate or oblong, 5–8 mm long, 2–4 mm wide, base cuneate, margin entire, apex usually acute to broadly acute, rarely obtuse; midveins sparsely pubescent adaxially, lateral nerves indistinct. Racemes terminal, usually 5–13-flowered. Pedicels 1–3 mm long, with dense and minute hairs. Sepals oblong or ovate, ascending, equal, caducous in fruit, 1–2 mm long, 0.8–1.25 mm wide, sparsely pubescent abaxially, margins membranous and ciliate, rounded at apex. Petals alternate with sepals, broadly obovate, bluish-white to white, with blue or a few purple veins on the lower half, 4–7 mm long, 2–3.5 mm wide, abruptly narrowed to claw at base, apex shallowly to deeply emarginate, apical notch up to 0.4–0.5 mm in depth. Stamens 6, in 2 whorls, slightly tetradynamous; filaments light yellow to purple, lateral pair slender, 1.2–1.5 mm long, median pairs 1.1–1.5 mm long, strongly dilated and appendaged at base; anthers nearly dark purple, 0.45–0.5 mm long, longitudinally dehiscent. Nectar glands surrounding base of lateral stamens, subtending base of median filaments. Pistil 2-carpelled, ovary sessile, ovate; style cylindric, minutely papillate, nearly equal length to stamens. Pedicel of fruit elongated in fruit stage, 4–6 mm long, shorter than or nearly equal to leaflike bract in length. Fruit cordate in shape, glabrous, dehiscent, 5–5.5 mm long, 3–3.5 mm wide; valves navicular, thinly papery, with a crest of tubercles surrounding margin and extending along midvein; replum slender, 5.3–5.5 mm long; septum absent. Seeds 2 per fruit, usually ovoid, slightly flattened, 3.4–3.8 mm long.
Flowering occurs from May to early September, and fruiting from August to October.
The specific epithet
Chinese Mandarin: xin guo ban ji ji (心果半脊荠).
The presence of cordiform fruits is the most remarkable character to distinguish
1a | Cauline leaves sessile; sepals not ciliate at margin; style conical, glabrous. | |
2a | Stems pubescent with simple trichomes only; petals creamy white with dark green veins; median filaments strongly inflated basally into an oblong appendage; ovules 2 per ovary |
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2b | Stems pubescent exclusively with appressed, subsessile, forked and trifid trichomes; petals bright yellow with veins of same color as rest of limb; median filaments unappendaged at base; ovules 4 per ovary |
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1b | Cauline leaves petiolate; sepals ciliate at margin, if not then petals purple; style cylindric, minutely papillate. | |
3a | Petals purplish; leaves with setose, appressed trichomes; sepals not ciliate; stem trichomes malpighiaceous, not crisped |
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3b | Petals pink, creamy white or yellowish; leaves glabrous or with crisped pilose trichomes; sepals ciliate; stem trichomes puberulent, crisped. | |
4a | Petals 2.5–3.5 mm long, 1.5–2 mm wide, pink, narrowly obovate, shallowly emarginate; leaves glabrous or rarely sparsely pilose |
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4b | Petals 4–7 mm long, 2–5 mm wide, creamy white to yellowish, obcordate, deeply emarginate to nearly 2-lobed; leaves pilose or rarely glabrescent. | |
5a | Petals creamy white; cauline leaves 5–8 mm long, 2–4 mm wide; pedicels of fruits shorter than or nearly equal length to leaflike bracts; fruits cordate in shape |
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5b | Petals creamy white to yellowish; cauline leaves 3–4 (6) mm long, 1–1.5 (3) mm wide; pedicels of fruits significantly longer than leaflike bracts; fruits spindle or narrowly oblong in shape |
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We express sincere thanks to staff of the Yunnan Jiaozishan National Natural Reserve for providing facilities and assistance in fieldwork, to Qiuping Wang for the preparation of the line drawings, and to Yuanyuan Ling and Haiping Zhang for their help in examining specimens of