Paris variabilis (Melanthiaceae), a new species from southwestern China

Abstract

Paris variabilis, a new species from the Wumengshan Mountains, southwestern China, is described and illustrated. The new species is placed in Paris section Euthyra. The new taxon was determined to be most morphologically similar to P. vietnamensis but differs in its oblong leaf blades with an acute apex, stamens 2–4 × petal number, greenish yellow filaments and an enlarged, purplish red style base. The phylogenetic placement of this species was assessed based on nuclear ribosomal ITS DNA sequences data. The results of morphological and phylogenetic analyses support the status of the taxon as a new species.

Genome Skimming Contributes to Clarifying Species Limits in Paris Section Axiparis (Melanthiaceae)

“…section Axiparis H. Li (Melanthiaceae), a taxonomically perplexing plant group that includes nine described species distributed from Central China to the Himalayas ( Li, 1998 ; Ji et al, 2006 , 2019b ; Huang et al, 2016 ). Since the description of the first two species ( Paris vaniotii and P. forrestii ) of the section ( Léveillé, 1906 ; Takhtajan, 1983 ), a total of four ( P. axialis , P. guizhouensis , P. lihengiana , and P. variabilis ) and three ( P. dulongensis , P. rugosa , and P. tengchongensis ) species whose morphologies are similar to P. vaniotii and P. forrestii respectively have been described ( Li, 1984 , 1992 ; He, 1990 ; Ji et al, 2017 ; Xu et al, 2019 ; Yang et al, 2019 ). The rapid accumulation in the number of species over the last 40 years has led to considerable taxonomic confusion in P. sect.…”

“…The overlap of morphological features and species ranges implies that (1) P. dulongensis , P. rugose , and P. tengchongensis are likely conspecific with P. forrestii , and (2) P. axialis , P. guizhouensis , P. lihengiana , and P. variabilis may belong to P. vaniotii . Accordingly, previous morphological-based taxonomic studies ( Li, 1984 ; He, 1990 ; Li, 1992 ; Ji et al, 2017 ; Xu et al, 2019 ; Yang et al, 2019 ) may have overemphasized intraspecific and minor morphological variations to establish species, therefore led to the proliferation of synonyms in P. sect. Axiparis .…”

From nine to two: Ultra-barcoding develops a rigorous species delimitation framework in Paris section Axiparis (Melanthiaceae)

“…Therefore, it is reasonable to recognized them as distinct species under the unified species concept (de Queiroz, 2007), given that the species boundary proposed by our data reflects the unity of morphological uniqueness, genetic distinctiveness, and evolutionary independence. The findings suggest that previous morphology-based taxonomic studies (Li, 1984;He, 1990;Li, 1992;Ji et al, 2017;Xu et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2019) overemphasize intraspecific and minor morphological differences to establish species, therefore leading to the proliferation of synonyms. As a result, it is necessary to reduce P. axialis , P. guizhouensis , P. lihengiana , and P. variabilis as the synonyms of P. vaniotii , and to merge P. dulongensis ,P. rugosa and P. tengchongensis into P. forrestii .…”

“…Axiparis , P. dulongensis and P. lihengianaare categorized as critically endangered (Qin et al, 2017;Xu et al, 2019); P. forrestii , P. guizhouensis , P. rugosa ,P. tengchongensis and P. vaniotii are classified as endangered (Ji et al, 2017;Qin et al, 2017); P. axialis andP. variabilis are identified as Vulnerable (Qin et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2019). As suggested by our ultrabarcoding analyses, prior taxonomic studies generally over-split species, and thus proliferated as many as seven synonyms in P. sect.…”

“…section Axiparis H. Li (Melanthiaceae), a well-supported monophyletic clade including nine described species restricted to southwest China and the Himalayas (Li, 1998;Ji et al, 2006Ji et al, , 2019bHuang et al, 2016). Discovery of the first species (Paris vaniotii ) of this group, dating back to 1906, was based on collections from Guizhou, southwestern China (Léveillé, 1906), with the remaining species have been described since the 1980s (Takhtajan, 1983;Li, 1984Li, , 1992He, 1990;Ji et al, 2017;Xu et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2019). The rapidly increasing species count in the last 40 years led to considerable taxonomic confusion inP.…”