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Issue: Vol. 423 No. 4: 11 November 2019
Type: Article
Published: 2019-11-11
DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.423.4.3
Page range: 247–258
Abstract views: 19
PDF downloaded: 1

Rediscovery of Aster polius (Astereae: Asteraceae), a rare and endemic species from China, after one century

College of Life Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610066, Sichuan, China State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
College of Life Sciences, Henan Agriculture University, Zhengzhou 450002, Henan, China
College of Plant Protection, Henan Agriculture University, Zhengzhou 450002, Henan, China
College of Environment and Ecology, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, PR China
State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Eudicots Aster polius Asteraceae China endemic species molecular phylogeny

Abstract

Aster polius C.K. Schneider (Asteraceae, Astereae) was known only from the holotype locality after having been collected in 1908. Its systematic position and relationships among Aster and related genera remained unknown. In this work, we report the rediscovery of Aster polius at the type locality in western Sichuan, China, in 2016. After a detailed comparison with herbarium specimens and a phylogenetic reconstruction of densely sampled relatives based on nuclear markers (nrITS & nrETS), the position of Aster polius was determined to be in Aster ser. Albescentes. This species differs from other species of A. ser. Albescents in some key characters, i.e., leaves adaxially verruculose, leaves narrowly ovate to elliptic, 0.6–1.5 × 0.2–0.7 cm, capitula in corymbiform synflorescences. An amended description with a distribution map and a drawing of the species are presented.