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| Hydrangea xinfeniae W.B.Ju & J.Ru, in Ru, Ju, Deng, Xu, Zhou, Liu et Huang, 2024. 信芬常山 || DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.238.114289 |
Abstract
Hydrangea xinfeniae W.B.Ju & J.Ru, a new species of Hydrangeaceae from Sichuan Province, China, is described and illustrated. The new species belongs to Hydrangea sect. Dichroa (Lour.) Y.De Smet & Samain, with its distinctive characteristic being the nearly superior ovary. It shares morphological similarities with H. yaoshanensis (Y.C.Wu) Y.De Smet & C.Granados, but can be distinguished by its hirsute trichomes densely covered on the branchlets, leaves, peduncles and pedicels, broadly elliptic to rectangular-elliptic leaf blade with nearly rounded base, coarse teeth leaf margins, 3–4 pairs of lateral veins, corymbose cyme with few and loose branches, lanceolate bract, the calyx tube and lobes margin with sparsely hirsute trichomes, adaxially glabrous and abaxially sparsely hirsute petal, outer whorl filaments are linear, inner ones are awl-shaped, glabrous styles, and the nearly superior ovary. H. xinfeniae sp. nov. currently known from only three relatively small populations of the type locality, and its conservation status is assessed as Data Deficient (DD).
Key words: Hydrangea sect. Dichroa, morphology, taxonomy
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| Hydrangea xinfeniae W.B.Ju & J.Ru, sp. nov. A plant B leaves (upper: adaxial, lower: abaxial) C a branch with inflorescence D, E flower F petal (upper: adaxial, lower: abaxial) G stamen H infructescence I young berry J indumentum on different organs, from upper to lower, including old branchlet, young branchlet, petiole, carpopodium, leaf adaxial, and leaf abaxial. |
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| Hydrangea xinfeniae W.B.Ju & J.Ru, sp. nov. in the wild A habit B a branch with inflorescence C fruiting branch. |
Hydrangea xinfeniae W.B.Ju & J.Ru, sp. nov.
Diagnosis: Hydrangea xinfeniae can be distinguished from the morphologically similar species H. yaoshanensis by the presence of densely hirsute trichomes on branchlets, leaves, peduncles and pedicels; leaf blades that are broadly elliptic to rectangular-elliptic with a nearly rounded base and coarse teeth along the leaf margin, lateral veins 3–4 on each side of the midvein; a corymbose cyme with few, loosely arranged branches and lanceolate bract; calyx tube sparsely covered with hirsute trichomes, with only the edges of the lobes bearing such hairs; a glabrous adaxial surface of the petals, while the abaxial surface is adorned with scattered hirsute trichomes; outer whorl filaments are linear, inner ones are awl-shaped; styles are glabrous, and a nearly superior ovary.
Etymology: The species epithet xinfeniae is in honor of Prof. Xinfen Gao, a distinguished female botanist who made significant contributions to the plant diversity survey of Huagaoxi National Nature Reserve.
Vernacular name: Simplified Chinese: 信芬常山; Chinese pinyin: Xìnfēn cháng shān.
Jian Ru, Wen-Bin Ju, Heng-Ning Deng, Bo Xu, Xiang Zhou, Chuan-Jiong Liu and Wei Huang. 2024. Hydrangea xinfeniae (Hydrangeaceae), A New Species from Sichuan, China. PhytoKeys. 238: 65-73. DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.238.114289
