Paraboea tetrabracteata F.Wen, Xin Hong & Y.G.Wei, 2013

Wen, Fang, Hong, Xin, Chen, Ling-Yun, Zhou, Shou-Biao & Wei, Yi-Gang, 2013, A new species of Paraboea (Gesneriaceae) from a karst limestone hill in southwestern Guangdong, China, Phytotaxa 131 (1), pp. 1-8 : 2

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/phytotaxa.131.1.1
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/C91587EC-FF91-FFE3-FF28-FF14FBB1F8E8
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Paraboea tetrabracteata F.Wen, Xin Hong & Y.G.Wei
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Paraboea tetrabracteata F.Wen, Xin Hong & Y.G.Wei View in CoL , sp. nov. ( Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1 & 2A–H View FIGURE 2 )

This new species differs from Paraboea rufescens in its undulate to faintly sinuate leaf blade margins, 3–6 lateral veins, 4 narrowly oblong-ovate bracts, 1.3–1.5 cm long flowers and straight capsules. It differs from P. dictyoneura in its elliptic to ovate, or oblong leaf bade, the undulate to faintly sinuate margins, its 3–6 lateral veins, 4–9 cm long peduncles, 4 bracts, narrowly oblong to lanceolate or linear calices, 2 staminodes and straight capsules.

Type: –– CHINA. Guangdong Province: Yangchun city, Kongtong Mountain , growing on rocks, 22°11′19″N, 111°44′28″E, elevation 38–80 m, 8 June 2008 (fl.), Fang Wen 080608 (holotype IBK!, isotype ANU!) GoogleMaps .

Terrestrial, rosulate, perennial herbs, sometimes with rhizomes up to 8 cm long. Rhizomes stout and lignified, 3–8 cm, 0.4–0.5 mm in diameter. Roots slender, fibrous. Leaves 6–10 per plant, basal or clustered near the rhizome apex; petioles flattened, 0.4–1.3 cm, ca. 0.3 cm in diameter, densely covered with appressed grey velvety hairs; leaf blades thick papery, elliptic to ovate or oblong, 6–10 × 2–3 cm, bases cuneate-attenuate, margins undulate to faintly sinuate with a densely woolly strip, apices obtuse, adaxially densely brown cobwebbed when young, glabrescent when mature, abaxially densely brown woolly; principal vein depressed above, raised beneath, lateral veins 3–6 on each side of principal vein, concave and glabrescent adaxially, convex and densely woolly (matted) indumentum abaxially, more or less curved-ascending, tertiary venation indistinct or inconspicuous. Cymes 1–4(–6), axillary or subterminal, 2–3 branches, with few to many flowers; peduncle 4–9 cm, 1.2–1.5 cm in diameter, densely covered with long golden-brown hairs; bracts 4, narrowly oblong-ovate, 8–9 × 3–5 mm, woolly outside. Pedicels 12–15 mm, densely covered with brown woolly hairs when young and becoming gradually glabrescent. Calyx 5-sect from base; segments narrowly oblong to lanceolate or linear, 4–5 mm, 1.3–1.5 mm in diameter, acuminate at apex, densely yellowish-brown woolly outside. Corolla zygomorphic, purplish to white, 13–15 mm, ca. 10 mm across; glabrous outside, glandular puberulent from base to orifice outside; tube ca. 7 mm; limb two-lipped, adaxial lip 3.3–3.6 × 4.5–4.7 mm, biparted to the middle, semi-orbicular, apex obtuse; abaxial lip 5.8–6.2 × 5.5–5.8 cm, trilobed to the base. Stamens 2, adnate to abaxial side of corolla tube ca. 1.2 mm above the base; filaments baculiform, 5–6 mm, ca. 0.6 mm in diameter, glabrous, inflated and curved on the upper part; anthers fused by their entire adaxial surfaces, oblong, 3–4 × ca. 2 mm. Staminodes 2, linear, 3–4 mm, adnate to adaxial side of corolla tube ca. 1 mm above the base. Pistil ca. 9 mm, sparsely glandular puberulent to glabrous; ovary narrowly conical, ca. 6 mm, ca. 1 mm in diameter; style glabrous, ca. 3.5 mm, curved; stigma 1, terminal, capitate. Fruit a slender capsule, 2.0– 2.5 cm, 0.1 cm in diameter, glabrous, slightly curved, not twisted, dehiscing loculicidally to base. Seeds elliptic, brown, ca. 0.6 × 0.4 mm.

Distribution: — China. Only known from a small population at the type locality on Kongtong Mountain (22°11′N, 111°44′E) ca. 16 km west of Yangchun City in southwestern Guangdong Province ( Figure 4 View FIGURE 4 ).

Habitat and flowering time:— Paraboea tetrabracteata grows in crevices of sun-facing cliffs of a limestone hill, at an elevation between 38 and 80 m. The forest where P. tetrabracteata occurs is subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest. Flowering time is in June.

Etymology: ―The epithet refers to its four bracts.

Vernacular name: ―SiBao Zhumaojutai (Chinese).

Notes:― Paraboea tetrabracteata is morphologically similar to P. dictyoneura ( Hance 1883: 169) B.L.Burtt (in Burtt 1984) and P. rufescens ( Franchet 1884: 449) B.L.Burtt (in Burtt 1984) in several characters ( Figure 3 View FIGURE 3 ), but can be easily distinguished by the characters provided in Table 1.