Abstract
A new species, Ptilagrostis contracta, endemic to Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is described and illustrated. It is distinguished from other species in Ptilagrostis by having contracted panicles, 1-geniculate awns with hairy columns and scabrous bristles and evenly pubescent lemmas. Evidence from lemma epidermal pattern, cytology and molecular phylogenetic analyses based on the nuclear ITS sequence data confirm its systematic position in Ptilagrostis.
Highlights
Ptilagrostis Griseb. is a small genus of approximately 11 high altitude species, widely accepted on the basis of its distinctive morphological characters, cytological evidence [1,2,3,4,5,6] and molecular data [7, 8]
It is strongly supported to be a member within Ptilagrostis by the evidence from lemma epidermal pattern, cytology and molecular phylogenetic analyses based on the nuclear ITS sequence data
The fundamental cells (FC) are 3–9 times longer than the short cells (SC); side wall of FC sinuous, slightly thickened; SC padded by silica bodies (SB), alternated with cork cell (CC) or not; SB rectangular or oblong with 2–4 shallow contractions; prickles (P) and macro hairs (MH) present (Fig 1I)
Summary
Ptilagrostis Griseb. is a small genus of approximately 11 high altitude species, widely accepted on the basis of its distinctive morphological characters, cytological evidence [1,2,3,4,5,6] and molecular data [7, 8]. Ptilagrostis is disjunctive in Asia and North America [5, 9,10,11,12] with the diversity center in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where approximately eight taxa occur. The plants can be distinguished from all the other known Ptilagrostis species by having contracted panicles, 1-geniculate awns with pubescent columns and scabrid bristles and evenly pubescent lemmas. We determined that these populations represent a hitherto undescribed species and named as P. contracta. The detailed description of the new species is given below
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