Four New Chinese Species of Epimedium (Berberidaceae)

Abstract

The list of 39 species of Epimedium known from China in 1996 (Stearn 1997), contrasted with the 12 known in 1938 (Stearn 1938) and in 1975 (Ying 1975), demonstrates the remarkable increase in knowledge of the Chinese flora during the past twenty years and also its great floristic richness, as indeed do other modern studies of Chinese genera. No severe glaciation, such as devastated the Tertiary flora of Europe, interrupted the evolution of the plants of China although increasing cold from the north caused a gradual southward shift of vegetation (cf. Zhao et al. 1992). Three of the new species described below are the three 'sp. nov. ined.' of the above list. E. rhizomatosum, formerly considered a variant of E. membranaceum, has proved to be specifically distinct. For some other undescribed species, the available information is at present inadequate. David G. Barker (1997) has published a useful survey of the taxa of Epimedium known in cultivation in 1996.