Taxonomic studies on Zingiberaceae of Myanmar II: Curcuma stolonifera (Subgenus Ecomatae), a new species from the northw

  • PDF / 3,209,298 Bytes
  • 5 Pages / 496.063 x 720 pts Page_size
  • 28 Downloads / 160 Views

DOWNLOAD

REPORT


AND

AKIYO NAIKI4

1

Department of Botany, National Museum of Nature and Science, Amakubo 4-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 3050005, Japan; e-mail: [email protected] 2 New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY 10458, USA 3 Forest Research Institute, Forest Department, Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry, Yezin, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar 4 Iriomote Station, Tropical Biosphere Research Center, University of the Ryukyus, Taketomi-cho, Yaeyama-gun, Okinawa, Japan

Abstract. In the course of taxonomic studies on Zingiberaceae in Myanmar, a new species of Curcuma assignable to subgenus Ecomatae was discovered in Htamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary, Sagaing Region, northwestern Myanmar. It is described and illustrated here as Curcuma stolonifera. This new species differs from other species in subgenus Ecomatae Škorničk. & Šída f. in having a combination of the following characters; long creeping rhizomes, an oblonglanceolate lamina with reddish midrib, a small number of green bracts, a central inflorescence, pale whitish yellow flowers, and a short slightly L-shaped anther with a curved spur. Keywords: Burma, ginger, Htamanthi, new taxon, Sagaing Region, Upper Chindwin.

Continental Southeast Asia is an important biodiversity hotspot for the family Zingiberaceae (Tanaka & Aung, 2019), and the flora of Myanmar is one of the region’s most poorly documented. To improve the knowledge of Zingiberaceae in Myanmar, expeditions to the northwestern and southeastern regions, which are the most undercollected areas of the country, were carried out. Thus far, our recent fieldwork has revealed many new or newly recorded species of the Zingiberaceae (Aung et al., 2015a, b, 2017; Mood et al., 2016; Tanaka & Aung, 2017; Tanaka et al., 2018; Tanaka & Aung, 2019). Recently, Curcuma kayahensis Nob. Tanaka & Aung was described (Tanaka & Aung, 2019) from southeastern Myanmar as the first in a series of papers. The genus Curcuma is the second largest genus in the Zingiberaceae and comprises 120 species that occur throughout tropical and subtropical Asia from India to southern China, Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea and northern Australia (Wu & Larsen, 2000; Záveská et al., 2012). Twenty-two species of subgenus Ecomatae were

recognized (Tanaka & Aung, 2019), and quite recently two more species, C. tongii Y.H. Tan & L.X. Zhang (Zhang et al., 2019) and C. putii Maknoi & Jenjitt. (Maknoi et al., 2019) were described from China and Thailand, respectively. Thus far, a total of 25 species of Curcuma subgenus Ecomatae are known. In the course of studying specimens collected from Htamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary, Sagaing Region, another unidentified species of Curcuma L. was discovered. It is assignable to a member of subgenus Ecomatae, which is characterized by epigynous glands, anther spurs and lack of a conspicuous coma of sterile bracts (LeongŠkorničková et al., 2015). The newly collected species has unique characters, which distinguish it from any other species thus far described. This species is characterized by having long cre