identifier	taxonID	type	CVterm	format	language	title	description	additionalInformationURL	UsageTerms	rights	Owner	contributor	creator	bibliographicCitation
03EB9703E72AFF82FF14FF07FC50FDFC.text	03EB9703E72AFF82FF14FF07FC50FDFC.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Swertia cordata (G. Don) C. B. Clarke	<div><p>Swertia cordata (G.Don) Wall. ex C.B.Clarke in J.D. Hooker, Fl. Brit. India 4: 123 (1883).</p><p>(Figure 2 &amp; 3).</p><p>Ophelia cordata G.Don in Gen. Hist. 4: 178 (1837).</p><p>Swertia patnitopiansis B.Singh, Phytotaxa 498: 273 (2021). syn. nov.</p><p>Habitat:— The species grows in temperate forests as component of herbaceous layer and also common in grasslands.</p><p>Phenology:— Vegetative phase occurs from May–July; flowering from August–September; fruiting from September–October.</p><p>Specimens examined:—   INDIA. Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu Province, Udhampur District, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=75.33&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=33.08" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 75.33/lat 33.08)">Patnitop Hill</a> proper, 33.08°N, 75.33°E, elev. 2202 m, 16 October 2014, Bikarma Singh 52757 ( S. patnitopiansis holotype: RRLH,  isotype RRLH);   Jammu Province, Udhampur District, 5 km upwards from <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=75.306&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=33.102" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 75.306/lat 33.102)">Patnitop Hill</a>, 33.102°N, 75.306°E, elev. 2092 m, 14 October 2016, Bikarma Singh 54298 (paratype: RRLH) ;   Jammu Province, Udhampur District, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=75.246&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=33.096" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 75.246/lat 33.096)">Nathatop Hill</a>, 33.096°N, 75.246°E, elev. 2607 m, 16 November 2017, Bikarma Singh 54259 (RRLH) ;   Kashmir Province, Anantnag District,  Pahalgam,  Aru, 18 August 2022, Tajamul Islam, Anzar Ahmad Khuroo &amp; Irshad A. Nawchoo 36647 (KASH) ;   Kashmir Province, Anantnag District,  Pahalgam,  Overa, 16 August 2022, Tajamul Islam, Anzar Ahmad Khuroo &amp; Irshad A. Nawchoo 36878 (KASH) ;   Kashmir Province, Bandipora District,  Badwan,  Guraiz, July 1994, Showket 37064, 37065 (KASH) ;   Kashmir Province, Bandipora District,  Badwan,  Guraiz, July 1994, Manzoor &amp; Naqshi 37066 (KASH) ;   Kashmir Province, Anantnag District,  Lidderwat valley,  Pahalgam, 07 July 2008, Akhtar H. Malik 30315 (KASH)  .</p><p>Discussion:— Recently, several new species in genus  Swertia have been described from India (Singh 2021; Wani et al. 2022; Islam et al. 2022; Banoo et al. 2022).The genus is highly polymorphic and strongly paraphyletic in relation to the other genera (Chassot et al. 2001), therefore, regional studies should be done carefully to describe a new species. For instance, recent studies described the  S. angustifolia under different names based on material from different regions, such as Thailand ( S. dielsiana Hosseus), China ( S. esquirolii H.Lév.), and Myanmar ( S. kachinensis Lace, and  S. lacei Craib). Slight and unstable morphological variants were also recognized as distinct varieties, which are now treated as synonyms of  S. angustifolia (Husain et al. 2020) . Likewise, Kumar &amp; Singh (2024) recognized a recently described species  Lomatogonium madhmaheshwariansis (Singh et al. 2024) as a new synonym of  Swertia alpina Bhattach. &amp; Agrawal (1981: 36) .</p><p>Overall, our results revealed that the  S. cordata and  S. patnitopiansis closely resemble each other. Both grow in similar type of habitat and have similar habit (Figure 1B &amp; 2A), subquadriangular stem (Figure 2A&amp;B), petiolate, elliptic basal leaves which wither at anthesis (Figure 1B), sessile, broadly ovate cauline leaves with stem clasping, cordate base and acute apices (Figure 1B, 2A&amp;B), pedicellate, pentamerous flowers, lanceolate sepals with acute apices, narrowly ovate-elliptic, white and dark purple tinged petals with acute apices, nectary 1 per corolla lobe, orbicular, up to 1 mm diameter, positioned near the base (Figure 2A,B, 3A,B&amp;C), oblong anthers (Figure 3D&amp;E), ellipsoid carpel with short style (Figure 3F), ellipsoid-narrowly ovoid, upto 5 mm long capsule (Figure 3G), and polyhedral, upto 1 mm diam seeds with rough surface and irregularly winged at one end (Figure 3H). Therefore, based on the findings of present study,  S. patnitopiansis is recognized as a new synonym of  S. cordata .</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03EB9703E72AFF82FF14FF07FC50FDFC	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Islam, Tajamul;Khuroo, Anzar Ahmad;Maity, Debabrata;Nawchoo, Irshad A.	Islam, Tajamul, Khuroo, Anzar Ahmad, Maity, Debabrata, Nawchoo, Irshad A. (2024): Swertia patnitopiansis, a new synonym of S. cordata (Gentianaceae). Phytotaxa 664 (2): 132-138, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.664.2.5, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.664.2.5
