Cremanthodium wardii Smith (1917: 27)

Wang, Long, 2020, Resurrection of Cremanthodium gracillimum and C. wardii (Asteraceae, Senecioneae), with notes on the genus in Myanmar, Phytotaxa 446 (3), pp. 183-198 : 190-195

2. Cremanthodium wardii Smith (1917: 27) . Figs. 5 , 6 , 8 .

Type:— MYANMAR. Kachin: Naung Chaung-Nmai divide, in wet moss in sheltered places among granite boulders and rocks, near summit of granite mountain, ca. 3900 m a.s.l., 16 July 1914, F. Kingdon-Ward 1796 (holotype E!). Fig. 5A .

Perennial herbs, to 25 cm tall. Stems solitary, rarely 2, erect, 2–3 mm in diam. at base, proximally glabrous, distally purple villous. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 4–12 cm long, purple villous, base sheathed; leaf blade reniform, 0.5–4 cm long, 1–6 cm wide, adaxially dark green, abaxially pale green, both surfaces sparsely arachnoid or glabrescent, base cordate, sinus narrow or divergent, margin white or purple villous, shallowly or sharply crenate or dentate, apex rounded or shallowly retuse; palmate veins sunken adaxially, prominent abaxially, veins green. Stem leaves several. Proximal stem leaves smaller than basal leaves. Middle stem leaves shortly petiolate, base slightly sheathed; leaf blade smaller than those of basal leaves, reniform. Distal stem leaves ovate or lanceolate, margin sharply dentate, without sheaths. Capitula solitary, nodding. Involucre broadly campanulate, (0.9–) 1.2–1.9 (–2.5) cm high, 1.5–3.5 cm in diam., outside white villous below the middle, or glabrescent; phyllaries 6–14, in 2 rows, white or purplish red, petaloid; outer ones obovate-oblong, 4–6 mm wide, apex acute, inner ones broadly elliptic, 0.7–2.5 cm wide, submembranous, margin subentire, ciliate, apex mucronulate or rounded. Ray florets absent. Tubular florets numerous, shorter than phyllaries, purplish red, 2.5–3.5 mm long; tube 1–1.5 mm long; limb 1.5–2.5 mm long; styles extending from corolla, slender; style branches blackish purple. Achenes brown, obovoid, 3–5 mm long, apex truncate. Pappus white, 2.5–3.5 mm long, as long as tubular corolla.

Distribution and habitat:—Known only from northeastern Myanmar ( Fig. 6 ), growing in alpine screes, stony pastures, granite rocks and meadows at altitudes of 3350–4260 m a.s.l.

Phenology:—Flowering from July to August and fruiting in September.

Additional specimens examined:— MYANMAR. Kachin: Chimili Valley, R. Farrer 1177 (E), G. Forrest 24947 (BM, E, K, P), G. Forrest 25019 (BM, E, IBSC, K, NY, PE), G. Forrest 26819 (BM, E, IBSC, K, NY, P), G. Forrest 27005 (BM, E, IBSC, K, NY, P, PE), G. Forrest 27253 (BM, E, IBSC, K, NY, P, PE); Imaw Bum, F. Kingdon-Ward 3360 (E); Tama Bum, F. Kingdon-Ward 21474 (BM).

Notes:— Cremanthodium wardii Smith (1917: 27) was described on the basis of a single collection, F. Kingdon-Ward 1796 (E; Fig. 5A ), from northeastern Myanmar. In the protologue, the author stated that it was similar to C. discoideum Maximowicz (1882: 238) , but differed by having orbicular leaves and white phyllaries. Good (1929) pointed out that C. wardii was very close to C. campanulatum and apparently the representative of that species on the granite rocks of northeastern Myanmar, but differed by the phyllaries hairy towards the base, more than twice the length of the tubular florets (vs. usually hairy all over, less than twice the length of the tubular florets). In addition to the type collection, Good (1929) referred several other collections from northeastern Myanmar (some shown in Figure 5B–D ) to this species. Hu (1966), Koyama (1968) and Kress et al. (2003) all recognized C. wardii as a separate species. Liu (1989), however, reduced it to the synonymy of C. campanulatum Diels (1912: 190 ; Fig. 7 ), stressing that the hairiness of phyllaries and the relative length of phyllaries and tubular florets were variable and did not correlate with each other in C. wardii , with the relative length of phyllaries and tubular florets only associated with the involucre size, which itself was associated with the size of plant individuals, a highly variable character in the widespread C. campanulatum with diverse habitat preferences.

Observations on both herbarium specimens (including type material) and living plants of Cremanthodium wardii ( Figs. 5 , 8 ) and C. campanulatum ( Figs. 7−10 ) have revealed that the two species can be immediately distinguished from each other. In C. wardii , the phyllaries are white or purplish red, and whitish pilose basally, and tubular florets are 2.5–3.5 mm long with the tube 1–1.5 mm long, the limb 1.5–2.5 mm long and the pappus 2.5–3.5 mm long. In C. campanulatum , the phyllaries are purplish red (pale yellow or white in C. campanulatum var. flavidum Liu & Ho (2001: 558) ; see below), and purplish red pilose basally and dorsally, and the tubular florets are 6–10 mm long with the tube 2–3 mm long, the limb 4–7 mm long, and the pappus 6 mm long. The specific status of C. wardii is thus reinstated herein.

Liu & Ho (2001) described the phyllaries of Cremanthodium campanulatum var. flavidum ( Fig. 11 ) as pale yellow or white. One of its paratypes, i.e. J.F. Rock 18130 (E, GH, K; Fig. 11D ), however, was recorded to have pale purple to white phyllaries on the field label. A single plant with yellow phyllaries and thus referable to C. campanulatum var. flavidum was also found to occur in a large population of otherwise typical C. campanulatum var. campanulatum in Weixi, northwestern Yunnan, China ( Fig. 12 ). The identity of C. campanulatum var. flavidum remains uncertain and may represent only a morph of C. campanulatum .

Ten species of Cremanthodium , with the reinstatement of C. gracillimum and C. wardii , are currently recognized from Myanmar. These include C. campanulatum , C. delavayi ( Franchet 1892: 286) Diels ex Léveillé (1916: 43) , C. farreri Smith (1920: 202) , C. forrestii Jeffrey in Diels (1912: 191), C. gracillimum , C. magnificum Fei & Wang in Fei et al. (2019: 12), C. pinnatisectum ( Ludlow 1976: 279) Chen & Liu in Liu (1984: 65), C. pulchrum Good (1929: 274) , C. rhodocephalum , and C. wardii . Among them, C. gracillimum , C. magnificum , C. pulchrum and C. wardii are all endemic to Myanmar. It is noteworthy that the type locality of C. atrocapitatum Good (1929: 282) and C. acernuum (1929: 284), i.e. ‘Chawchi Pass’, was misinterpreted to be situated in Myanmar but actually belongs to Gongshan in northwestern Yunnan, China (Cox 1920, Chen & Xu 2016). These two species are restricted to northwestern Yunnan in distribution and should therefore be excluded from the flora of Myanmar. To facilitate the identification of specimens, a key to species of Cremanthodium in Myanmar is provided below.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Specimens of Cremanthodium wardii. A. Myanmar, Kachin, Naung Chaung-Nmai divide, F. Kingdon-Ward 1796 (E; holotype). B. Myanmar, Kachin, N’Maihka-Salwin divide, G. Forrest 27253 (K). C. Same locality, G. Forrest 27005 (E). D. Same locality, R. Farrer 1177 (E).

FIGURE 6. Distribution of Cremanthodium wardii (▲).

FIGURE 7. Syntype sheets of Cremanthodium campanulatum. A, B. China, Yunnan, Lijiang, J.M. Delavay 2192 (P).

FIGURE 8. Cremanthodium wardii in the wild (Myanmar, Kachin, Imaw Bum). A, B. Habitat and habit. Photographs: Bo Liu.

FIGURE 11. Holotype (A), isotype (B) and paratype (C, D) sheets of Cremanthdium campanulatum var. flavidum. A. China, Sichuan, Muli, J.F. Rock 17919 (A). B. Same locality, J.F. Rock 17919 (E). C. Same locality, J.F. Rock 18130 (E). D. Same locality, J.F. Rock 24470 (GH).

FIGURE 12. Cremanthodium campanulatum var. flavidum in the wild (China, Yunnan, Weixi).A. Habit. B. Leaf blade (adaxial surface). C. Leaf blade (abaxial surface). D. Phyllaries (abaxial surface). E. Tubular florets. Note that this single plant with yellow phyllaries and thus referable to C. campanulatum var. flavidum was found to occur in a large population of otherwise typical C. campanulatum var. campanulatum. Photographs: Long Wang.