Discovering new plant species - Quang Binh room of Aristolochia quangbinhensis Do

10/01/2014

A group of researchers from the Vietnam Museum of Nature - Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi University of Pharmacy and Dresden Botanical Institute - Federal Republic of Germany, have discovered and described a species. New plants of the genus Aristolochia subgenus Isotrema (Aristolochiaceae), named Aristolochia quangbinhensis Do. The results are published in the specialized journal PhytoKeys 33 (2014).

Genus Aristolochia L. contains about 500 species, mainly distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, the plants in this genus are the favorite food of the caterpillars of the Papilionidae family - the Flake Wing (Lepidoptera ), and is widely used in traditional medicine of Vietnam and China. This is also an important group of plants in the co-evolutionary study of the world.

Species of the Aristolochia quangbinhensis Room Due to similar morphological characteristics with the species Aristolochia championii Merrill, A. versicolor Hwang (distributed in South China) and A. vallisicola Yao (distributed in Peninsular, Malaysia). However, the new species is distinguished from the aforementioned species by morphological features such as leaf stalks 1.5–2.5 (–3) 1 cm long, leaf-shaped elliptical leaves to oblong ellipses; flower stalks 1.5–2 cm long; radio shaped bell, 2–2.5 (–3) cm diameter and only pink, purple felt on both sides, flower envelope without colored dots and parallel veins, three lobes unevenly, lobes edges curled up.

General morphology of the Aristolochia quangbinhensis Do Room (Photo: Nghiem Duc Trong)

The new species was discovered under the evergreen broadleaf forest canopy on lowland mountains, close to the buffer zone of Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park, which is under strong impact from burning and deforestation activities. cultivation, degrading distribution and size of populations. Therefore, according to the standards of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN - 2013), the Aristolochia quangbinhensis Room of the Quang Binh Century Room is recommended at the near-critical level (VU D2) and should be concern conservation.

01: Number 3 in botanical classification means that most measurements of size are in the range of 1.5–2.5 cm, but individual samples have a measurement of 3 cm.

Tranlated by Minh Tam