Spinulum lioui Li Bing Zhang & H.He, 2017

Chen, De-Kui, Zhou, Xin-Mao, He, Hai & Zhang, Li-Bing, 2017, Spinulum lioui, a new species referred as to Lycopodium neopungens (Lycopodiopsida: Lycopodiaceae) in China, Phytotaxa 307 (2), pp. 161-163 : 161-162

Spinulum lioui Li Bing Zhang & H.He , sp. nov., Fig. 1 .

Vernacular name: DZỄệaeƃffi.

Type:— CHINA: Heilongjiang: Xiaoxing’anling, Hongxing, Hongqi Experimental Forest Farm of Beijing Forestry College [48˚19 ʹ N, 129˚19 ʹ E], under Larix forest, 2 September 1963, T. N. Liou et al. 10407 (holotype HIB-0099100!, isotype PE!).

Diagnosis: This new species is most similar to Spinulum canadense , but the former has trophophylls acicular and sporophylls with broad membranous transparent erose margins, while the latter has trophophylls narrow-lanceolate to narrow-ovate and sporophylls with very narrow membranous transparent erose margins.

Stolons slender and creeping, up to 1.4 m, green, with sparse trophophylls; lateral branches ascending, 8–17 cm tall, 1–3 times forked, sparse, whole branches terete, stem together with leaves 8–12 mm in diam. Trophophylls spirally arranged, dense, angled upward, acicular, 3–6 × 0.7–1.3 mm, leathery, without transparent hairs, midrib indistinct abaxially, visible adaxially, base cuneate, decurrent, sessile, margins entire, apex acuminate. Strobili solitary, terminal on branchlets, erect, terete, sessile, 2–3.3 cm × ca. 4 mm; sporophylls broadly ovate, ca. 3 × 2 mm, papery, with broad membranous transparent erose margins, apex acute. Sporangia enclosed.

Distribution and habitat:—Northeast China; forests, forest margins; ca. 1000 m.

Etymology:—In honor of the late Prof. Tchen-Ngo Liou ( ḾDZỄ 1898–1975), one of the founders of Chinese botany and one of the collectors of the type of this species.

Notes:— Lycopodium neopungens is a nom. nov. for L. pungens La Pylaie ex Iljin (1934: 117) , non Alderwerelt (1915: 26), based on the invalid name “ L. annotinum var. pungens La Pylaie ex Desvaux ” (1827: 182), with its type (not designated) from Europe. At species rank, L. canadense is the oldest name ( Haines 2003). Zhang & Iwatsuki (2013) also suspected that all these names represent the same species.

One duplicate of the type (isotype) at PE, examined by LBZ in the 1990s, was not found by us.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Holotype of Spinulum lioui (HIB-0099100).—A. Habit.—B. Trophophylls.—C. Strobilus.