New Infrageneric Taxa of Corispermum L. (Chenopodiaceae)

Abstract

Two new infrageneric taxa of Coris- permum L. (Chenopodiaceae) are described: sections Patellisperma and Declinata. Geographical distri- butions and taxonomic comments are provided. Corispermum L. (Chenopodiaceae, Corisper- meae) is a relatively compact and clearly defined genus consisting of ca. 60 almost obligately psam- mophytic species distributed primarily in the arid regions of Asia, with some species also native to temperate Europe, northern Asia, and North Amer- ica. Unfortunately, with the exception of three series described by Klokov (1960) in his monograph of some East European species, no infrageneric system has been proposed for this genus. The present paper may be regarded as the pre- liminary outline of the infrageneric classification of Corispermum (at the sectional level), since the prop- er placement of many insufficiently known species (e.g., sometimes represented in herbaria only by type collections) is not completely clear and remains a task for further study. It is especially true for Central and East Asian species (see Iljin, 1929; Tsien Cho- po & Ma Cheng-gung, 1979).