J Syst Evol ›› 2006, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (4): 467-470.DOI: 10.1360/aps050174

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Discovery of Abelia spathulata (Caprifoliaceae) in eastern China

1ZHOU Shi-Liang, 2FUNAMOTO Tsuneo, 3HUANG Pu-Hua, 1 4WEN Jun*   

  1. 1(State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China)

    2(Biological Institute, Showa Pharmaceutical University, 3-Chime, Higashi-Tamagawagakuen, Machida, Tokyo 194-8543, Japan)

    3(College of Forestry, the Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China)

    4(Department of Botany, United States National Herbarium, National Museum of Natural History, MRC-166, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA)wenj@si.edu
  • Received:2005-12-01 Published:2006-07-18

Abstract: Abelia spathulata, a species native to Japan, is discovered in Zhejiang Province, China. It is most closely related to A. chinensis genetically but easily distinguishable by its 2-flowered cyme (vs. flowers many in a terminal panicle in A. chinensis) at the end of branchlets, white or pink (vs. white) corolla, which is 2-3 (vs. 0.5-1) cm long, campanulate and bilabiate (vs. infundibuliform, nearly regular), and non-exserted (vs. exserted) stamens.

Key words: Caprifoliaceae, Abelia, Abelia spathulata, China