Stipa zalesskii Wilenskii, 1921

Nobis, Marcin, Nobis, Agnieszka, Klichowska, Ewelina, Nowak, Arkadiusz, Nowak, Sylwia & Gudkova, Polina D., 2016, Stipa dickorei sp. nov. (Poaceae), three new records and a checklist of feather grasses of China, Phytotaxa 267 (1), pp. 29-39 : 36

37. Stipa zalesskii Wilenskii [= S. rubens Smirnov (1925: 231) ; = S. rubentiformis Smirnov (1928: 115) ; = S. maeotica Klokov & Osychnyuk (1976: 60) ; = S. smirnovii Martinovský (1975: 260) ]

Notes: During revision of the herbarium material preserved at MSB, PE and KUN, we found numerous specimens of Stipa bhutanica Noltie (1999: 289) , collected from Yunnan, Sichuan and Xizang provinces [selected specimens studied: Yunnan, the mountain behind Laotanfang, Hongtudi town, Gongchuan District, Kunming, 26°05’931’’N/102 °54’579’’E, 3400 m a.s.l., alpine meadow, 1 August 2008, Peng Hua, Liu Ende, Xiang Jianyuing et al. 9240 (KUN!, KUN-918490!); Xizang, E Tibet, Niingjing Shan, Mekong (Lancang) tributary, W of Markham (Gartong), above Camp 2, 29°41’N / 98°30’E, 4300 m a.s.l., subalpine+lower alp. turf, Rhododendron dwarf-scrub, Picea forest at tree line, 1 July 1994, B. Dickoré 8628 (MSB-152870!)]. Occurrence of this species in China was recently also reported from numerous localities by Zhang et al. (2016, unpubl). The species was described and up to date known only from Bhutan ( Noltie 1999). In China, it was misidentified mainly as S. subsessiliflora , S. basiplumosa and S. regeliana , however, S. bhutanica differs from all of these mentioned above taxa by having a short blind callus, unigeniculate awns and clearly unequal lemma and palea. Because the lemma epidermal pattern of this species is typical rather for Ptilagrostis not for Stipa ( Nobis & Nobis 2013, Nobis 2013, Nobis et al. 2016a), we decided to not included this species into the given above checklist. The taxon should be transferred to the genus Ptilagrostis as P. bhutanica (M. Nobis unpubl.), further researches are needed in this case.