Bredia jiuwanshanensis J. H. Dai & Ying Liu, 2025

Dai, Jin-Hong, Zhong, Zhe, Zhou, Ren-Chao & Liu, Ying, 2025, New taxa and nomenclatural changes in Bredia (Sonerileae, Melastomataceae), PhytoKeys 266, pp. 1-31 : 1-31

Bredia jiuwanshanensis J. H. Dai & Ying Liu sp. nov.

Figs 8 , 9 , 15 C

= Phyllagathis fordii var. micrantha C. Chen , Bull. Bot. Res., Harbin 4 (3): 50. 1984, p. p., quoad specim. S. H. Chun 15828.

Type.

China • Guangxi: Da-miao-shan County (now Rongshui County), Jiu-wan-shan, Shuang-he-gou , 750–1,200 m, 26 Jul 1958, S. H. Chun 15828 [ holotype: IBK! ( IBK 00127554 ); isotypes: HITBC! ( HITBC 011254 ), IBSC! ( IBSC 0223746 ), KUN! ( KUN 0156146 ), PE! ( PE 00782743 )] .

Diagnosis.

Most closely resembles B. micrantha in the dense, spreading, uniseriate hairs on the stems, bending young inflorescence, and isomorphic stamens, but differs in posture (multi-branched vs. few branched), smaller (1.5–7 × 0.7–3.8 cm vs. 3.5–13 × 1.7–6.3 cm), thick papery (vs. submembranous to thin papery), elliptic to narrowly elliptic leaf blade (vs. more or less ovate) with obtuse or rounded base (vs. cordate), and acute apex (vs. acuminate), and purple anthers and yellow connectives at anther base (vs. both cream).

Description.

Shrubs to 20 cm tall. Stems prostrate in lower parts and ascending / erect in upper parts, many-branched, terete; branchlets densely pubescent with 0.5 mm long, spreading, uniseriate hairs and multiseriate glandular hairs. Leaves opposite, equal to unequal; petiole 0.4–2.2 cm long, densely pubescent as branchlets; leaf blade elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or narrowly elliptic, 1.5–7 × 0.7–3.8 cm, thick papery, secondary veins 3 on each side of midvein, adaxial surface green to purplish dark green, puberulent with bent uniseriate hairs and ca. 0.2 mm long multiseriate setas, abaxial surface purplish-red, pubescent as branchlets, densely so along veins, base rounded, rarely truncate, margin ciliate and inconspicuously serrulate with each tooth having a terminal seta, apex acute. Inflorescence a terminal cyme, bending downwards when young, 1–3 - flowered; peduncle 0.5–1.5 cm long, densely pubescent as branchlets. Flowers bisexual, radial but androecium slightly bilateral, 4 - merous, pedicle, hypanthium and calyx lobes densely pubescent with 0.3–1 mm long hairs; pedicel 0.5–1.2 cm long; hypanthium yellowish-green, funnel-shaped, 5–6 × 3–4 mm; calyx lobes 4, narrowly triangular, 2–3 × 0.5 mm; petals 4, purplish-red, ovate, ca. 9 × 7 mm, puberulent with uniseriate hairs at the margin and along midvein on the abaxial surface, apex oblique, short acuminate; stamens 8 in two whorls, isomorphic, equal in length, filaments ca. 7 mm long, bent with the anthers to one side of the flower, anthers lanceolate, slightly curved, ca. 6 mm long, purplish-pink, connective forming 2 yellowish cream ventral lobes and a dorsal short spur of the same color; ovary ca. 4 mm long, 2 / 3 as long as the hypanthium (crown excluded), half inferior, locules 4, apex with membranous crown, crown margin ciliate with red glandular hairs; style ca. 1.4 cm long, basally puberulous. Capsule ca. 7 × 6 mm, funnel-shaped, with enlarged apical crown; placentation axial, placentas non-thready. Seeds numerous, cuneate.

Phenology.

Flowering late July to August, fruiting September.

Etymology.

The specific epithet refers to the type locality of the new species, Jiu-wan-shan Nature Reserve.

Distribution.

Bredia jiuwanshanensis is only known from Jiu-wan-shan Nature Reserve in Rongshui County, northern Guangxi, China, occupying moist soil slopes in forests or along forest margin.

Additional specimen examined.

China. Guangxi Province: • Rongshui County, Jiu-wan-shan Nature Reserve, Yang-mei-ao, Jiu-ren station, Bai-yan-shan , along forest margin and on soil slopes in forests, 1,400 m, 24 Jul 2021, J. H. Dai and Y. Liu 880 (A, PE, SYS) .

Figures

Figure 8. Holotype of Bredia jiuwanshanensis, S. H. Chun 15828 (IBK 00127554). Scale bar: 5 cm.

Figure 9. Bredia jiuwanshanensis, all from J. H. Dai and Y. Liu 880 (A, PE, SYS). A. Habit; B. Indumentum on a branchlet; C. Leaf morphology; D. A flowering branch; E. An inflorescence; F. Longitudinal section of a flower; G. Longitudinal section of a young capsule. Scale bars: 5 mm (F); 3 mm (G).

Figure 15. Distribution of the species discussed. A. B. cordata; B. B. esquirolii and B. macrophylla; C. B. fordii, B. micrantha, and B. jiuwanshanensis; D. B. pingshanensis, B. yunnanensis, and B. tuberculata.