Bupleurum pamiricum

Pimenov, Michael G. & Kljuykov, Eugene V., 2015, A new species of Bupleurum (Umbelliferae) from Badakhshan, with notes on and a key to the alpine species of High Asia, Phytotaxa 226 (3), pp. 245-252 : 245-246

Bupleurum pamiricum , a new species from the Pamirs

For the East (or “true”) Pamirs, only one Bupleurum species has been known, B. aitchisonii (Boiss.) H.Wolff ( Linczevski 1950, Ikonnikov 1963, Pimenov 1983, Korovin & al. 1984). We regard this name to be partly incorrect for Pamirs plants. It should be noted that herbarium labels also seem to reflect doubts as to the species identity. First collections of the alpine species of Bupleurum from Pamirs were made by Olga Fedtschenko (Pamirs, from Karasu to Chatyrtash, 16 August 1901, O.Fedtschenko, LE!); initially they were incorrectly treated as B. kokanicum Re gel & Schmalh.( Regel & Schmalhausen, 1881: 29) (i.e. B. densiflorum Ruprecht, 1869: 47 ), or B. falcatum L. subsp. persicum (Boiss.) Koso-Poljansky (1915: 139) . I.A. Linczevski, who was the first to identify these gatherings as B. aichisonii (Boiss.)H. Wolff (1910: 142) , while cautiously adding: “….or a new species, close to B. aitchisonii —for better understanding, more material is needed”.

B. aitchisonii was described as a variety ( var. aitchisonii Boissier 1888: 252 ) of B. olympicum Boissier (1844: 149) from Afghanistan (type specimens: Kurram valley, Afghanistan. amongst stones at 12,000 to 14,000 feet, Sikaram, August.1878, Aitchison 929 (lectotype G-BOIS!; isolectotypes BM!, C!, DD!, GH, K!, LE!). In Afghanistan, seven localities in districts of Kabul, Jaji and Nuristan are recorded in “Flora Iranica”( Rechinger 1987). The species grows also in Pakistan ( Nasir 1954, 1972, Stewart 1972, Dickore & Nusser 2000) and India ( Dhar & Kachroo 1983, Choudhery & Wadhwa 1984, Mukherjee & Constance 1993, Aswal & Mehrotra 1993) and is indicated for the Tajik flora (see above).

B. aitchisonii belongs to the group of hardly distinguished alpine species of High Asia, together with B. gracillimum Klotzsch (1862: 148) , B. rupestre Edgeworth (1846: 52) , B. atroviolaceum (O.E.Schulz) Nasir (1972: 54) . What is more, B. atroviolaceum has sometimes been treated as a form of B. aitchisonii — Bupleurum aitchisonii (Boiss.) H.Wolff f. atroviolaceum O.E. Schulz 1933: 876 ). Some taxa of the group were described as varieties of B. falcatum L. ( var. nigrocarpum Jacquem. ex C.B. Clarke 1879: 676 , var. afghanicum Kitamura 1960: 284 ). B. condensatum is also to be added to the group, although it is distributed rather far away from other species’ areas—in the Chinese province of Qinghai.

The treatment of some species of the group and their synonymy in local floras is rather contradictory, and some type materials are not available. So we used for comparison some our collections in Western Himalaya, which were critically compared and carefully identified. Sometimes they are topotypes.

In 2013 in Afghanistan we collected two geographically close gatherings of B. aitchisonii (Badakhshan, basin of the Pyandj River, on the way to Lake Shewa, above Gardzhwin village alt. = 3,140 m, spiny herb vegetation with dominance of Cousinia semilacera . 37º27, 43’N, 71º24,22’E, N 62; ibid, descent to Lake Shewa, h= 3300 m, 37º25,14’N, 71º20. 41’ E, N 72, MW!), completely corresponding to the type collection (N 929) of the species, and clearly different in stem leaf form and number, subequal umbels rays, almost sessile flowers and fruits from our and other herbarium collections from the Pamirs. We considered a possibility to attribute gatherings from the Pamirs to any other related species— B. atroviolaceum , B. rupestre , or B.gracillimum , but were forced to reject such possibility.

B. atroviolaceum and B. rupestre clearly differ from other regarded species, including Pamirs plants in petal colour—dark violet or almost black against yellow in other species. They also can be easily distinguished from B. gracillimum and the newly described species from the Pamirs by broad and acute bracteoles, exceeding umbellets. The priority name for this species is B. rupestre . According to P.K.Mukherjee ( Mukherjee & Constance, 1993), it was wrongly treated ( Nasir, 1972) as a synonym of B. longicaule DeCandolle (1830: 131) . So, this is a critical species, treated differently by botanists from the adjacent countries. Unfortunately, we could not investigate the type material of B. rupestre , but in the type locality (Chur or Churdar Mt. in Himachal Pradesh, India), where the only cushion-like species of Bupleurum grows near the top, we collected plants, that match B. rupestre and B. atroviolaceum descriptions (“ India, Himachal Pradesh, Simla distr., northern slope of Choordar Mt., S of Sarain village, 30°52’ N, 77°30’E, alt. = 3640 m, 13 September 2000, Pimenov & Kljuykov 201 “, MW!) We are sure that our material corresponds to B. rupestre , and then B. atroviolaceum is identical to it. Second our collection of B. ruperste was made in Kullu district (“ India Himachal Pradesh, Kullu district, Jalori Pass between Banjar and Ani, 31°20’N, 77°23’E, alt. = 3223 m, 11 September 2000. Pimenov & Kljuykov 178 ”, MW!)

B. gracillimum is probably the closest species to that being newly described here. We collected B.gracillimum with mature fruits high in the mountains, in Lahul & Spiti district of the Indian state Himachal Pradesh (“ India, Himachal Pradesh, Lahul & Spiti distr., Main Himalayan Range, upper Tsarap valley, near Kumjung Serai (Sarai Kilang), 32°49’N, 77°26’E, alt. = 4620 m, 29 August 2000, Pimenov & Kljuykov 66 ”; “...Lingti plains, Tsarap Valley, near Sarchu, 32°52’N, 77°32’E, alt = 4480 m, 30 August 2000, Pimenov & Kljuykov 70 ”;”…upper Spiti valley near Losar, 32°26’N, 77°44’E, alt. 4100 m, 08 September 2000, Pimenov & Kljuykov 139 ”; “…Chandra valley near Chhatru, 32°19’N, 77°21’E, alt.= 3580 m, 10 September 2000, Pimenov & Kljuykov 163 ”, MW!)). B. gracillimum has yellow flowers, but its stylopods are almost black, the number of bractelets is 6–9 (not 4–5 as in Pamirs plants), pedicels are shorter, stems are 2 mm in diam. (in Pamirs plants—more thin).The fruits of both species are similar, but not completely—in B. gracillimum they are longer ( Fig. 2c ). Podlech ( Podlech & Anders, 1977) determined the plants from “Wakhan corridor” just as B. gracillimum ; however, checking a duplicate of their gathering in LE, we showed it to be identical to Pamirs plants.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Fruit of Bupleurum pamiricum, in lateral (A) and dorsal view (B), as well as B. gracillimum in dorsal view (C): Vouchers:A & B = Pimenov et al. 1812 (MW); C = Pimenov & Kljuykov 139 (MW). Scale bar = 1 mm.