Ann. Bot. Fennici 45: 105–112 ISSN 0003-3847 (print) ISSN 1797-2442 (online) Helsinki 30 April 2008 © Finnish Zoological and Botanical Publishing Board 2008 Taxonomic revision of the Pternopetalum delavayi complex (Apiaceae) Li-Song Wang State Key Laboratory of Systematics and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan, Beijing, 100093, P. R. China (
[email protected]), and Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, P. R. China Received 6 Apr. 2006, revised version received ´20 Mar. 2007, accepted 29 Mar. 2007 Wang, L. S. 2008: Taxonomic revision of the Pternopetalum delavayi complex (Apiaceae). — Ann. Bot. Fennici 45: 105–112. A revision of three endemic Chinese species of Pternopetalum (P. cardiocarpum, P. delavayi and P. sinense), based on herbarium material and field observations, is presented. Examination of critical diagnostic characters showed that there is a single morphologically well-delimited species here treated as P. delavayi. Pternopetalum car- diocarpum and P. sinense are its taxonomic synonyms. Key words: Apiaceae, morphology, nomenclature, Pternopetalum, taxonomy. Introduction 1985), Vascular plants of Hengduan Mountain (Pu 1993), Yunnan Flora (Pu 1997) and Flora of Pternopetalum cardiocarpum (Franchet) Hand.- China (Pu & Phillippe 2005), their taxonomy has Mazz., P. delavayi (Franchet) Hand.-Mazz. and not been critically examined. P. sinense (Franchet) Hand.-Mazz. represent a Pu (1993) and Pu and Phillippe (2005) consid- complex group of perennial herbaceous plants ered that P. sinense and P. cardiocarpum maybe with variable morphological characters. They conspecific withP. molle (Franchet) Hand.-Mazz. are distributed in northwestern Yunnan, south- (the name has been widely misapplied in China) eastern Tibet and western Sichuan, China.