Hedyotis longiramulis (Rubiaceae), a new species from south China

Abstract

Hedyotis longiramulissp. nov. (Rubiaceae) is described from Guangdong Province, China. It is similar to H. caudatifolia but differs in having puberulent, more or less tetragonal and decussately sulcate juvenile stems, waxy leaf surface, short inflorescence peduncles, high length ratio of corolla lobe to tube, and subglobose capsules. The phylogenetic analysis reveals that H. longiramulis is sister to H. pubirachis. Dimorphism concerning pollen size was observed in the heterostylous flowers. The complete chloroplast genome of the new species comprises a typical quadripartite structure of 153,616 bp in length, with two inverted repeats of 25,457 bp, a large single-copy of 85,050 bp and a small single-copy of 17,652 bp. It contains 112 unique genes, including 79 protein-coding genes, 29 tRNA genes, and four rRNA genes, the GC content of the chloroplast genome is 32.4%. The new species is provisionally evaluated as “Least Concern” because it is common and well-protected in two Provincial Nature Reserves.