Saussurea talungensis (Asteraceae), a new species from Humla, Nepal Himalayas

Hum Kala Rana; Santosh Kumar Rana; Hang Sun; Kazumi Fujikawa; Dong Luo; Laxmi Raj Joshi; Suresh Kumar Ghimire

doi:10.3897/phytokeys.176.61996

Saussurea talungensis (Asteraceae), a new species from Humla, Nepal Himalayas

PhytoKeys. 2021 Apr 16:176:55-66. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.176.61996. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Hum Kala Rana^{1

2}, Santosh Kumar Rana¹, Hang Sun¹, Kazumi Fujikawa³, Dong Luo¹, Laxmi Raj Joshi⁴, Suresh Kumar Ghimire⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, CAS, #132 Lanhei Road, Kunming 650201, China Kunming Institute of Botany Kunming China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China.
³ The Kochi Prefectural Makino Botanical Garden, 4200-6 Godaisan, Kochi, Japan The Kochi Prefectural Makino Botanical Garden Kochi Japan.
⁴ National Trust for Nature Conservation, Bardia Conservation Programme, Bardia, Nepal National Trust for Nature Conservation Bardia Nepal.
⁵ Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal Tribhuvan University Kathmandu Nepal.

Abstract

A new species Saussurea talungensis S.K.Ghimire & H.K.Rana, sp. nov. (sect. Strictae), from Talung valley of Humla district, Nepal, is described and illustrated. Morphologically, this species resembles Saussurea roylei and Saussurea lanata in habit, though it can be distinguished in having longer leaf petioles, purplish leaf margin, 1 or 3 capitula, shorter phyllaries, shorter receptacle bristles and the same anthers, comparatively shorter corolla with shorter lobes. Phylogenomic analysis also supports S. talungensis as a distinct species of Saussurea. Here, we provide taxonomic note, distribution map and phylogenomic inference to distinguish the new species and its allied members.

Keywords: Saussurea; Nepal; Talung valley; new species; phylogenomics; taxonomy.

Hum Kala Rana, Santosh Kumar Rana, Hang Sun, Kazumi Fujikawa, Dong Luo, Laxmi Raj Joshi, Suresh Kumar Ghimire.

Grants and funding

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Kathmandu, Nepal; International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Nepal; Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) programme.