Hemiboeachanii (Gesneriaceae), a new species from limestone areas of northern Vietnam.

Cuong Huu Nguyen,Khang Sinh Nguyen,Alexander A Egorov,Leonid V Averyanov,Ly Van Nguyen

doi:10.3897/phytokeys.183.69180

Abstract

Hemiboeachanii, a new species of Gesneriaceae from Ha Giang Province, northern Vietnam, is here described and illustrated. It has many branched stems, diamond-shaped involucre with two cirrose opposite apices, a pink corolla, red spotted inside, and a flowering time in January-February. Among congeners with an externally hairy corolla, this new species is morphologically close to H.crystallina and H.sinovietnamica. Diagnostic discriminative characters in all mentioned species are discussed. The conservation status of this species is considered to be “Critically endangered” (CR) according to the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria.

Highlights

Prior to 2011, Hemiboea Clarke (1798) (Gesneriaceae) contained about 23 species and 5 varieties, distributed mainly from northern Vietnam to southern and eastern China to southern Japan (Weber 2004; Li and Wang 2004)
During the botanical fieldwork in limestone areas of Ha Giang Province in northern Vietnam in spring 2021, we collected an unusual species of Hemiboea
After consulting relevant literature of Hemiboea (Wang et al 1998; Pham 2000; Li and Wang 2004; Wei et al 2010; Do et al 2016; Luu et al 2018; Wei 2018; Nguyen et al 2019b) including recently published papers for new taxa of Gesneriaceae from Vietnam (e.g. Michaelmoelleria F.Wen, Y.G.Wei & T.V.Do in Wen et al 2020) as well as the examining of herbarium specimens, we identified our plants as a new species, well segregated from all known species of Hemiboea by its morphological characters, namely a diamondshaped involucre with a cirrose apex; a 1-veined calyx with flat, not revolute margin; a pink corolla with red spots, and a slightly swollen stigma

Summary

Introduction

Prior to 2011, Hemiboea Clarke (1798) (Gesneriaceae) contained about 23 species and 5 varieties, distributed mainly from northern Vietnam to southern and eastern China to southern Japan (Weber 2004; Li and Wang 2004).

Results

Conclusion