Abstract
Based on critical observations on herbarium specimens (including type materials) and living plants in the wild from its type locality, we demonstrate that Saussurea talungensis, recently described from Talung valley of Humla district, Nepal, is readily distinguishable from S. lanata by an array of morphological characters but is actually conspecific with S. roylei, a species with its type locality from northwestern India. We therefore reduce S. talungensis to the synonymy of S. roylei herein.
References
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<p align="justify"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shi, C. & Raab-Straube, E. von (2011) Saussurea Candolle. In: Wu, Z.Y. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) Flora of China, vols. 20–21. Science Press, Beijing & Missouri Botanical Garden Press, pp. 56–149.</span></span></span>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Candolle, A.P. de (1833) Genres nouveaux appartenant à la famille des Composées ou Synanthérées. Archives de Botanique 2: 330–334.</span></span></span>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Candolle, A.P. de (1838) Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis, vol. 6. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris, 687 pp.</span></span></span>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chen, Y.L., Liang, S.Y. & Pan, K.Y. (1981) Taxa nova compositarum e flora xizangensi (Tibetica). Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica 19 (1): 96–97.</span></span></span>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chen, Y.S. (2015) Asteraceae II: Saussurea DC. In: Hong, D.Y. (ed.) Flora of Pan-Himalaya, vol. 48 (2). Science Press, Beijing, 340 pp.</span></span></span>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Clarke, C.B. (1876) Compositae indicae descriptae et secus genera Benthamii ordinatae. Thacker, Spink & Company, Calcutta, Bombay & London, 229 pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.49202</span></span></span>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Raab-Straube, E. von (2017) Taxonomic revision of Saussurea subgenus Amphilaena. Englera 34: 1–274.</span></span></span>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rana, H.K., Rana, S.K., Sun, H., Fujikawa, K., Luo, D., Joshi, L.K. & Ghimire, S.K. (2021) Saussurea talungensis (Asteraceae), a new species from Humla, Nepal Himalayas. PhytoKeys 176: 55–66. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.176.61996</span></span></span>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Schultz Bipontinus, C.H. (1847) Bemerkungen zu der Tribus der Cynareen Less. Linnaea 19: 321–336.</span></span></span>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shi, C. & Raab-Straube, E. von (2011) Saussurea Candolle. In: Wu, Z.Y. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) Flora of China, vols. 20–21. Science Press, Beijing & Missouri Botanical Garden Press, pp. 56–149.</span></span></span>