A Priliminary Study On The Taxonomy Of Disporum (Liliaceae)

Disporum Salisbury, belonging to the family Liliaceae s. l. and the tribe Polygonateae s.l., was divided into two sections: Sect. Disporum (distributed in East Asia, including ca. 20 species) and Sect. Prasartes (in North America, including 6 species). Most Previous works on morphology, cytology, embryology, ecology and biosystematics in Sect. Disporum, were limited to a few species and merely related to confined geographic areas, such as Japan and Nepal. However, majority of species of the genus, most endemic to China, were rarely involved to date, such as D. bodinieri, D. longistylum, D. megalathum, D. hainanense, D. acuminatissimum and D. jinfoshanense, etc. Moreover, large number of specimens in the main Chinese herbaria is still under the state of misidentification. Therefore, the necessity to clarify the confusion becomes obvious, particularly after Hara's (1988) revision on this genus.The present dissertation consists mainly of three aspects:a) Textology combined with specimen analyses to correct the misidentification in D.bodinieriBased on textology and specimens analysis, it was found that most specimens of D. bodinieri (Lévl. et Vant.) Wang et Tang were identified according to Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae, Vol. 15 (1978) while the new version, Flora of China Vol. 24 (2000), was correctively accepting Hara's taxonomic revision. In fact the specimens erroneously determined as D. bodinieri, were not a unitary taxonomic entity, but instead, comprised by two different groups of plants, D. bodinieri and D. Longistylum. The specimens under misidentified state were due to the recognizers applied the disused concept which would risk making mistake retained in the vouches for the new version of Flora of China. D. bodinieri and D. longistylum are obviously different in morphology. However, about 10% of the specimens erroneously determined as D. bodinieri, turned out to be genuine D. bodinieri.b) Naming and describing a new species in Disporum.Disporum jinfoshanense X. Z. Li,D.M.Zhang et D.Y.Hong, a new species of the...