Magnolia xinningia (Y.W. Law & R.Z. Zhou ex Q.X. Ma, Q.W. Zeng, R.Z. Zhou & F.W. Xing) C.B. Callaghan & S.K. Png, 2020

Callaghan, Christopher B. & Png, Siak K., 2020, Twenty-six additional new combinations in the Magnolia (Magnoliaceae) of China and Vietnam, PhytoKeys 146, pp. 1-35 : 1

Magnolia xinningia (Y.W. Law & R.Z. Zhou ex Q.X. Ma, Q.W. Zeng, R.Z. Zhou & F.W. Xing) C.B. Callaghan & S.K. Png comb. nov.

Basionym.

Michelia xinningia Y.W. Law & R.Z. Zhou ex Q.X. Ma et al., Pakistan J. Bot. 37(1): 37, fig. 1 (2005).

Chinese name.

新宁含笑 meaning "Xinning michelia"

Type.

CHINA. Hunan Province: Xinning County, Ziyunshan, in evergreen broad-leaved forests, 1500 m, 20 September 1992, R.Z. Zhou 197 (holotype: IBSC n.v.; isotype: IBSC n.v.).

Michelia cavaleriei Finet & Gagnep. var. cavaleriei . In: Xia et al. (2008: 84), p.p. quoad syn. Michelia xinningia Y.W. Law & R.Z. Zhou.

Michelia foveolata Merr. ex Dandy. In: Sima & Lu (2009: 55) and Sima (2011: 216), both p.p. quoad syn. Michelia xinningia Y.W. Law & R.Z. Zhou.

Note 1.

Digital images of R.Z. Zhou 197 and 0197 were received from IBSC in 2019, but with the collection dates in April 1988 and April 1996 (Ziyunshan, 800 m) respectively, so probably represent paratypes not mentioned in the 2005 protologue.

Note 2.

In Flora of China ( Xia et al. 2008), the 9-tepalled Michelia xinningia from Hunan, with a published height by the naming authors of 20 m, appears incongruously as a synonym of the ca. 12-tepalled M. cavaleriei var. cavaleriei with a height to 10 m ( Liu et al. 2004: 229; Xia et al. 2008: 8; Deng and Yang 2015: 148). This would indicate that this remains about the maximum height of M. cavaleriei since being described as a small tree of 4-7 metres more than a century earlier ( Finet and Gagnepain 1906: 573), based on a collection from Guizhou ca. 400 km distance from the type locality of Michelia xinningia in Hunan. This discrepancy in their heights indicates that M. xinningia was evidently meant to appear in Flora of China as a synonym of the then new combination M. cavaleriei var. platypetala (Hand.-Mazz.) N.H. Xia of the same height. However, the present authors agree with the abstract and Latin diagnosis of the authors of M. xinningia which indicate it to be sufficiently distinguished from M. cavaleriei var. platypetala ( Ma et al. 2005: Table 1 ), to warrant species status, as has been recognised in Xing et al. (2009: 212) and Yang et al. (2016: 331). Also, Michelia xinningia can easily be differentiated from M. foveolata , under which it is made a synonym by Sima and Lu (2009) and included as such in Sima (2011: 216), by the comparative features compiled in Table 10 .

Note 3.

Bearing in mind the above discussion and comparative features, Michelia xinningia is an obviously distinct species. Therefore it is here transferred to Magnolia due to the past reduction of the previous segregate genera of subfamily Magnolioideae to the genus Magnolia .

Note 4.

A search of the literature has found that Michelia xinningia is in cultivation at 4 Chinese botanical gardens, each in which M. platypetala and M. foveolata are also cultivated ( Callaghan and Png 2019b).