Oreocharis oriolus, a new species of Gesneriaceae in a sclerophyllous oak community from Yunnan, Southwest China

Abstract

Oreocharis oriolus, a new species of Gesneriaceae in a sclerophyllous oak community from Yunnan, Southwest China, is described and illustrated. Morphologically, it resembles both O. forrestii and O. georgei, while it is distinct in combined characters of wrinkled leaves, peduncle and pedicel covered with whitish and egladular villous hairs, bract lanceolate and nearly glabrescent adaxially, and staminode absent. Molecular phylogenetic analysis based on nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (nrITS) and chloroplast DNA fragment (trnL-F) of 61 congeneric species also supported O. oriolus as a new species while it was nested with O. delavayi. It was currently assessed as 'Critically Endangered' (CR) regarding to its small-sized population and narrow distribution following the IUCN categories and criteria.

Oreocharis scutifolia (Gesneriaceae) , a unique new species from the Dry and Hot Valley of Jinsha River Basin, Yunnan, China

“…In recent years, a growing number of new Oreocharis species have been published with most of these new species being identified solely based on morphological features. Only a limited number of these new species have been described with a combination of both morphological and phylogenetic evidence (Puglisi et al, 2011;Guo et al, 2018;Hu et al, 2023;Ling et al, 2020;Lv et al, 2021;Yang et al, 2022), and the phylogenetic analyses have predominantly relied on ITS and chloroplast DNA fragment (trnL-F) sequences, which provided weak statistical support for most nodes . Extensive incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) and interspecific hybridization during the rapid radiation of Oreocharis have introduced significant complexity into the phylogenetic analyses (Kong et al, 2022).…”

“…(Gesneriaceae) is a species-rich genus which distributed in the Old World (Kong et al, 2022;Möller et al 2011). As of August 2021, there are 147 Oreocharis species (including a suspect species) in China (Wen et al, 2021), and in recent two years, the number of species in this genus is still increasing at a rate of more than 3-6 per year (Gong et al, 2022;Huang et al, 2023;Hu et al, 2023;Khuong et al, 2022;Li et al, 2023;Li et al, 2022;Ling et al, 2022;Liu et al, 2021;Lv et al, 2021;Yang et al, 2022;Yang et al, 2021;Zhou et al, 2023). Almost all of the Oreocharis species currently known are growing on shady and wet rocks, or stony soils (Kong et al, 2022).…”