Abstract
We collected an unusual new plant of Phoebe (Lauraceae) from southeastern Yunnan, China, which possesses more or less oblong leaves, paniculate inflorescences with strictly opposite lateral cymes, trimerous flowers with 4-locular stamens, and large fruits with tiny, equal, persistent tepals. Our molecular phylogenetic study based on nrITS, LEAFY and plastid matK sequences suggests that this species belongs to a clade of Phoebe including P. puwenensis, P. megacalyx, and P. macrocarpa. However, this species differs from the latter three species by subglabrous twigs, leaves and inflorescences (vs. pubescent twigs, leaves and inflorescences in the latter three species), larger fruits (5–8 cm long vs. 1–4 cm long in the latter three species), and smaller tepals (1–2.5 mm long vs. 5–15 mm long in the latter two species). As a result, Phoebe jinpingensis sp. nov. is described and illustrated here as new to science.
Highlights
The Lauraceae are woody plants, except for the hemiparasitic climber genus Cassytha L. (Linnaeus 1753), and have more than 3,000 species mainly distributed in tropical regions (Rohwer 1993)
This species is similar to P. macrocarpa C.Y.Wu (Wu and Wang 1957) and P. megacalyx H.W.Li (Lee et al 1979) in the large fruits over 3 cm in diam., but differs from the latter two species by the subglabrous leaves being more or less oblongelliptic and the larger fruits having smaller tepals
There is no phylogeny with full sampling of Phoebe, only a few molecular phylogenetic studies including partial sampling of the genus (Rohwer et al 2009; Li et al 2011a, b; Song et al 2017)
Summary
The Lauraceae are woody plants, except for the hemiparasitic climber genus Cassytha L. (Linnaeus 1753), and have more than 3,000 species mainly distributed in tropical regions (Rohwer 1993). (Linnaeus 1753), and have more than 3,000 species mainly distributed in tropical regions (Rohwer 1993). This family is notorious for its complicated taxonomy. The integration of morphological and molecular evidence represents a promising way to better understand the diversity of the tropical family Lauraceae. Phoebe is well-defined and differs markedly from other Asian genera of the Persea group by the persistent and appressed tepals at the base of fruits (vs deciduous or persistent and spreading tepals), e.g. Alseodaphne Nees (Wallich 1831), Alseodaphnopsis H.W.Li & J.Li (Mo et al 2017), Dehaasia Blume (Blume 1837), Machilus Nees (Wallich 1831), Nothaphoebe Blume (Blume 1851)
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