Flacourtia turbinata H. J. Dong & H. Peng, 2013

Dong, Hongjin & Peng, Hua, 2013, Flacourtia turbinata (Salicaceae: Flacourtieae), a new species from Yunnan, China, Phytotaxa 94 (2), pp. 56-60 : 56-58

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/phytotaxa.94.2.4
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/039F6457-FFC7-FFB6-FF4E-F6FEFBBDFA25
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Flacourtia turbinata H. J. Dong & H. Peng
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Flacourtia turbinata H. J. Dong & H. Peng View in CoL , sp. nov. ( Figures 1 View FIGURE 1 & 2 View FIGURE 2 )

It differs from F. jangomas in the triplinerved leaf venation, extraordinary long sepals, turbinate fruits, and leaves and twigs with pubescence when young.

Type: — CHINA. Yunnan: Yingjiang county, Tongbiguan village , elevation ca. 1100 m, 7 July 2012 (fr), Peng Hua & Dong Hongjin 2813 (holotype KUN!, isotype KUN!) .

Rampant shrub, 1–1.5 m tall, deciduous; branches usually armed with tortuous spines; bark yellow-brown or light brown, young branches green, smooth, sparsely pubescent, and later glabrescent. Petiole 3–6 mm long, pubescent or glabrescent; leaf blade thinly leathery to papery, narrowly ovate, ovate-elliptic, or ovate-oblong, rarely oblong-lanceolate or obovate-lanceolate, 8–15 × 4–6 cm, acute or rounded at base, margin serrate, longcaudate-acuminate at apex, glabrous abaxially, pubescent abaxially when young, then turning glabrous when fruiting; venation triplinerved, slightly raised on both surfaces, secondary veins conspicuous on both surfaces. Inflorescences axillary, solitary, peduncles 1–2 cm long, puberulous; bracts linear, ca. 1 × 5 mm, outside glabrous or sparsely hairy, inside pubescent, margin entire, ciliate. Flowers appearing with young leaves, white to flavescent, honey-scented. Sepals 8 or 10, coalescent as a tube, dropped together, ca. 1 cm long and 1 cm in diameter, apex obtuse, outside pubescent. Staminate flowers unknown. Pistillate flowers: ovary coneshaped, 4 × 3 mm; styles 4–6, united into a distinct column, ca. 2 mm long, slightly free at their apices; stigmas 2-lobed, dilated, recurved. Fruit green, turbinate, 2–2.5 cm in diameter, characteristically longitudinally angled especially when dried, style column persistent. Seeds 14–16, spindly.

Distribution: —Narrowly endemic in China and only known from the type locality, i.e. Tongbiguan village (24°37ʹN, 97°25ʹE), ca. 65 km west of Yingjiang county ( Figure 3 View FIGURE 3 ).

Habitat & Ecology: — Flacourtia turbinata is locally common, growing in the margin of mountain rainforests, accompanied by Ficus cyrtophylla (Wall. ex Miq.) Miq. , Lindera nacusua (D.Don) Merr. , Leea macrophylla Roxb. ex Hornem. , Gomphostemma arbusculum C.Y. Wu , Ageratina adenophora (Spreng.) R.M. King & H. Rob. , etc. Elevation varies from 1100 m to 1300 m, the average annual temperature of Yingjiang County is 19.3 °C, the average annual precipitation is ca. 2600 mm.

Etymology: —The species is named for the unusual fruit shape.

Phenology: —Flowering from March to May, fruiting from June to August.

Additional collection (paratype): — CHINA. Yunnan: Yingjiang county, Tongbiguan village , elevation ca. 1100 m, 18 April 2007 (fl), Liu Ende 1897 ( KUN!) .

Similar species: — Flacourtia turbinata is morphologically close to F. jangomas ( Loureiro 1790: 634) Raeuschel (1797: 290) , distributed in W Guangxi, S Hainan and S Yunnan, based on united stigma and the leaf shape, but it could easily be distinguished by several other characters ( Table 1).