Oreocharis jasminina (Gesneriaceae), a new species from mountain tops of Hainan Island, South China

Abstract

A new species of Gesneriaceae, Oreocharis jasminina S.J.Ling, F.Wen & M.X. Ren from Hainan Island, south China, is highlighted and described. The new species is distinguished by its actinomorphic corolla, narrow floral tube and ovate anthers hidden in the floral tube. The new species also showed clear geographic and altitudinal isolation from the three currently-recognised Oreocharis species on the Island. Molecular phylogenetic analysis, based on nuclear ITS1/2 and plastid trnL-trnF sequences, supported the delimitation of the new species, which forms a single lineage with all the other Oreocharis species from Hainan Island. The roles of geographic and floral isolation in the evolution of the new species and its affinities are discussed.

Phylogeographic patterns driven by river isolations in an island-endemic montane plant

“…Two examples are the multiple intra-specific genetic lineages detected in the endemic speciesMetapetrocosmea peltata (Merr. et Chun) W. T. Wang (Gesneriaceae) and genus Oreocharis (Gesneriaceae), which also presented a strong phylogeographical population structures (Li et al , 2020;Ling et al , 2020a).…”

“…The family Gesneriaceae in Hainan Island is notable for its extremely high species endemism (Wei, 2010;Ling et al, 2017aLing et al, , 2017b. Fourteen genera and 25 species of Gesneriaceae are currently found on the island, including two endemic genera and nine endemic species Yang, 2013;Ling et al, 2017aLing et al, , 2020b. The species endemism proportion of Hainan Gesneriaceae is 30%, a great value similar to that of the nearby Guangxi Province (Ling et al, 2017b), long believed to be the species distribution and endemism centre of Gesneriaceae in SW China due to its widespread limestone landscapes Wei et al, 2004;Wei, 2010).…”

“…The species endemism proportion of Hainan Gesneriaceae is 30%, a great value similar to that of the nearby Guangxi Province (Ling et al, 2017b), long believed to be the species distribution and endemism centre of Gesneriaceae in SW China due to its widespread limestone landscapes Wei et al, 2004;Wei, 2010). All these Hainan endemics are found on crown lineages (Ling et al, 2017b), suggesting a recent origin (Ling et al, 2017b(Ling et al, , 2020a. However, the mechanisms and processes underlying speciation patterns of these narrow endemics have received little attention.…”

Oreocharis reticuliflora (Gesneriaceae), a new species from southeastern Sichuan, China

“…Ling, F. Wen & M.X. Ren (Ling et al 2020), O. chienii (Chun) Mich. Möller & A. Weber and O. tubiflora K.Y. Pan.…”

Oreocharis xieyongii, an unusual new species of Gesneriaceae from western Hunan, China

“…This genus contains ca. 139 species (125 plus new species recently published) that mainly occur in Northeast India, southern and southwestern China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar ( Möller et al., 2011b , 2016 , 2017 , 2018 , 2019 ; Fu et al., 2019a , 2019b ; Pan et al., 2019 ; Wen et al., 2019 ; Yang et al., 2019 , 2020 ; Cai et al., 2019 , 2020 ; Chen et al., 2020b ; Du et al., 2020 ; Ling et al., 2020 ; Qin et al., 2020 ). In earlier taxonomic studies, the genus Oreocharis was thought to contain about 28 species ( Wang et al., 1990 , 1998 ), but after revision based on morphological and molecular evidence it now contains 11 previously recognized genera (i.e., Ancylostemon Craib, Bournea Oliv., Briggsia Craib, Dayaoshania W.T.…”