823. BERBERIS YILIANGENSIS Berberidaceae. Julian Harber

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1 823. BERBERIS YILIANGENSIS Berberidaceae Julian Harber In 2000 I received two packets of Berberis seeds from Alan Clark, a by-product of one of his expeditions to China in search of Rhododendron. Though shortly after germination it was clear they were both from the Section Wallichianae, it took some years before they were mature enough for me to attempt any identification. OnepacketfromeastGuizhouprovedtobeB. xanthoclada C. K. Schneid., the other from northeast Yunnan I could not identify and as my Chinese Berberis studies progressed, I realised this could only be a new species. One of these plants I donated to Wisley and the type collection (A. Clark 4332) has come from this plant. As I noted in my previous Curtis s article (Harber, 2012), the Berberis section Wallichianae was first proposed by Schneider (1905) and as delineated by Ahrendt (1961), has not been subsequently disputed. It consists of evergreen species with coriaceous leaves and solitary or fascicled flowers. In that article I reported that my count of section Wallichianae species in China was 75. It is now 88 including the species below and 3 from Taiwan published by Yu & Chung (2014). As far as this section is concerned northeast Yunnan and the immediately adjacent parts of Sichuan and Guizhou is a very interesting area. There are very few Berberis collections from there, but a significant percentage of them are of species that appear to be locally endemic. These are B. acuminata Franch. and B. arguta Franch. (both first collected by Delavay), B. pingshanenis Sung & Hsiao, B. hsuyunensis Sung & Hsiao, B. caudatifolia Wu & Bao and B. guizhouensis Ying. None of these are known beyond a single or a handful of collections and none appear to have ever been in cultivation in the UK. It was therefore no surprise to me that the collector s notes to A. Clark 4332 recorded it to be uncommon. The only other Berberis recorded for Yiliang Xian that I have located are three collections of Berberis acuminata. Curtis s Botanical Magazine 2016 vol. 33 (1): pp The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2016.

2 Plate 823 Berberis yiliangensis christabel king

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4 Yiliang Xian ( ) in Zhaotong Shi should not be confused with Yiliang Xian ( ) in Kunming Shi. Berberis yiliangensis is somewhat similar to Berberis fallaciosa, but has wider and more elliptic leaves and a different flower structure. Berberis yiliangensis Harber sp. nov. Type: Cultivated, Royal Horticultural Society Garden, Wisley, Surrey, UK, from W A June 18, 2013, sine coll. n. from seeds of A. Clark 4332, NE Yunnan, Zhaotong Shi, Yiliang Xian, Xiaocaoba, 1700 m, autumn 1999 (holotype PE (2 sheets) !, isotypes A (2 sheets) !; WYS (two sheets) WYS !). Berberis yiliangensis is somewhat similar to Berberis fallaciosa, but has wider and more elliptic leaves and a different flower structure. Description. Evergreen shrubs, to 2.5 m tall in cultivation; mature stems pale brown-yellow, subterete, verruculose; spines 3-fid, semi-concolorous, cm., abaxially sulcate, Petiole almost absent or to 4 mm; leaf blade abaxially pale grey-green, yellow-green when dry, shiny, adaxially mid-green, shiny, narrowly elliptic or elliptic, rarely obovate-elliptic (3 ) (0.8 )1.5 2 ( 2.5) cm, leathery, midvein raised abaxially, slightly impressed adaxially, lateral and reticulate veins indistinct abaxially, inconspicuous adaxially (more conspicuous when dry), base narrowly attenuate, margin with 5 15 spinulose teeth on each side, apex subacuminate, mucronate. Inflorescence a 2 9-flowered fascicle; pedicel pale brown, mm; bracteoles triangular c mm. Sepals in two whorls; outer sepals oblong-ovate 2 1 mm, inner sepals oblong-elliptic, mm. Petals obovate mm, apex rounded, incised; base clawed, glands c mm, separate; stamens c. 3.5 mm, anther connective not produced, truncate; ovules 1 or 2. Berry purplish black, partially pruinose, oblong, 7 4 mm; style peristent and short (Fig. 2). Distribution. China, northeast Yunnan; known only from cultivated plants grown from seeds collected in Yiliang Xian. Habitat. Growing in heavy soil on the edge of a cultivated area. The collector s notes described it as uncommon. Phenology. The flowering and fruiting period of Berberis yiliangensis is unknown outside cultivation. In cultivation it flowers between April to June and fruits from July to February the following year. Proposed Iucn Conservation Status. Data Deficient (DD). Selected Specimens. W A, Royal Horticultural Society Wisley Gardens, Surrey, UK and in my own collection at Foster Clough, Mytholmroyd, W. Yorkshire, both from A. Clark 4332 (living plants). The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

5 Fig. 1. Berberis yiliangensis. A, leaf, 2; B, node with spines, 2 / 3 ;C,flower,faceview, 4; D, flower from below, 4; E F, sepals, 8; G, H, J, petals, 6; K, stamens, (side and face views) 8; L, pistil, 6; M, pistil, longitudinal section, 6. Drawn by Christabel King from specimens of the type at RHS Garden, Wisley. Cultivated specimens; from Foster Clough plant of A Clark 4332, 12 May, 2015, J. F. Harber (A, E, K, KUN); same details, but 7 Feb. 2016, J. F. Harber (A, E, K, KUN, TI). Acknowledgements. I would like to acknowledge the help given by members of staff at the Royal Horticultural Society s Garden at Wisley in relation to Berberis yiliangensis and at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh in relation to Berberis dokerlaica. My thanks also for information provided by David Boufford of Harvard University Herbaria and Peter Cox, and to Michael Woodhead for the photograph of Doker La. 36 The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2016.

6 BERBERIS BREVIPEDICELLATA In 2013 the National Geographic Society funded me to collect Berberis in northwest Yunnan and southwest Yunnan. My fellow collectors were David Boufford of Harvard and various members of the Kunming Institute of Botany. As were driving down from Daxue Shan in northeast Yunnan (the Kunming participant for this part of the expedition being Xin-Hui Li) I noticed some Berberis plants out of the corner of my eye growing near the road. I could see immediately they were not of any species known to me and called for a halt (our driver Xue-Liang Meng being very used to such peremptory requests). And so it proved to be. I only found this one colony consisting of half a dozen plants growing in close proximity to each other. Chinese deciduous Berberis specimens are often very similar and distinguishing between them is frequently very difficult. (Kingdon-Ward (1930: 72) in one of his more jaundiced moods stated of them every eastern tide throws up new ones, though it is often a matter of nice discrimination to tell Tweedledum from Tweedledee ). In many cases this can only be done by investigating their flower structure, but in this case the combination of stem colour, leaf shape, single fruit, very short pedicels and number of seeds per fruit is sufficient to distinguish it from all published species. Berberis brevipedicellata Harber sp. nov. TYPE: China. NW Yunnan, Zhongdian (Xianggelila) Xian. Slope on S side of Daxue Shan Yakou along highway S217, N, E, 4040 m, 2 Sep. 2013, D. E. Boufford, J. F. Harber & X. H. Li (holotype PE!, isotypes A!, BM!, CAS!, E (2)!, IBSC!, K!, KUN (2)!, MO!, PE!, TI!). Berberis brevipedicellata has leaves that are somewhat similar in shape to Berberis lepidifolia, though not as narrow, but has a very different inflorescence. Description. Deciduous shrubs, to 2.25 m tall; mature stems pale reddish brown; spines 3-fid, pale yellow, cm, slender, solitary or absent towards apex of stems. Petiole almost absent, rarely to 2 mm; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially dull mid-green, oblanceolate or narrowly obovate, 2 4( 5.2) ( 1.3) cm, papery abaxially densely papillose, adaxially with slightly raised midvein, lateral and reticulate veins Curtis s Botanical Magazine 2016 vol. 33 (1): pp The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

7 Fig. 1. Berberis brevipedicillata. The type collection in NW Yunnan, Zhongdian (Xianggelila) Xian; slope on the south side of Daxue Shan Yakou. Photograph: Julian Harber. inconspicuous abaxially, conspicuous adaxially, base narrowly attenuate, margin entire, apex obtuse or subacute. Inflorescence 1-flowered, flowers unknown; fruiting pedicel 1 4 mm. Immature berry green turning red, ovoid, rarely ellipsoid, mm; apex sometimes bent; style persistent, seeds 2 4. Distribution. China, northwest Yunnan, Zhongdian (Xianggelila) Xian; known only from the type collection (Fig. 1). Habitat. In roadside thickets on the edge of a deciduous forest on a mountain slope at 4040 m. Phenology. Berberis brevipedicellata has been collected with immature fruit in September, otherwise its phenology is unknown. Proposed Iucn Conservation Status. Data Deficient (DD) REFERENCES Ahrendt, L.W.A. (1961). Berberis and Mahonia: a taxonomic revision, Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany 57: Harber, J. (2012). Two new Berberis section Wallichianae from Western China, Curtis s Botanical Magazine, 29 (2): The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2016.

8 Kingdon-Ward, F. (1930). Plant Hunting on the Edge of the World. Victor Gollanz Ltd., London. Schneider, C.K. (1905). Die Gattung Berberis (Euberberis). Bulletin de l herbier Boissier Sér. 2,5: , , Yu, C.C. & Chung, K.F. (2014). Systematics of Berberis sect. Wallichianae (Berberidaceae) of Taiwan and Luzon with description of three new species, B. schaaliae, B. ravenii, andb. pengii. Phytotaxa 184 (2): The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew