Primulina anisocymosa (Gesneriaceae), a new species with a unique inflorescence structure from Guangdong, China

Xin Hong; Jeremy Keene; Zhi-Jing Qiu; Fang Wen

doi:10.7717/peerj.6157

Primulina anisocymosa (Gesneriaceae), a new species with a unique inflorescence structure from Guangdong, China

PeerJ. 2019 Jan 4:7:e6157. doi: 10.7717/peerj.6157. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Xin Hong^{1

2

3}, Jeremy Keene⁴, Zhi-Jing Qiu⁵, Fang Wen²

Affiliations

¹ School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui, China.
² The Gesneriad Conservation Center of China, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Plant Conservation and Restoration Ecology in Karst Terrain, Guilin Botanical Garden, Guangxi Institute of Botany, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guilin, China.
³ College of Life Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China.
⁴ Glenville State College, Glenville, WV, USA.
⁵ Laboratory of Southern Subtropical Plant Diversity, Fairylake Botanical Garden, Shenzhen and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China.

Abstract

A new Primulina species from Guangdong, China with an unusual inflorescence is described here. Primulina anisocymosa is vegetatively most similar to P. bobaiensis. It can be distinguished from all species within Primulina morphologically by its unique zigzag monochasial cyme and infructescence. To confirm the phylogenetic relationships and generic placement of this species, not only morphological anatomical features but also chromosome and DNA sequence data were examined and analysed here. Two samples from different populations identified as Primulina anisocymosa are monophyletic and were nested in a monophyletic clade within Primulina with high branch support. The somatic chromosome number of the new species is also reported (2n = 36), supporting its placement in the genus.

Keywords: Chromosome cytology; Didymocarpinae; Phylogeny; Taxonomy; Zigzag monochasial cyme.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Anhui Province Resources Information Center Development Project, the Anhui University Doctor Startup Fund, the Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program, the Key University Science Research Project of Anhui Province (KJ2017A022), the Fund of Guangxi Key Laboratory of Plant Conservation and Restoration Ecology in Karst Terrain (No.17-259-23), the Nellie D. Sleeth Scholarship Endowment Fund by Gesneriads Society, the Boyce Edens Research Fund by the African Violet Society of America, the Guangxi Natural Science Foundation (2015GXNSFBB139004) and the Key Research and Development Project of Guangxi (Guike AB16380053). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.