A new species, Aster yaoshanensis (Asteracae, Astereae), from Guangxi (China), based on morphology and molecular phylogenetic data

Xinyi Zheng; Kun Qin; Tingyu Li; Tianmeng Qu; Junjia Luo; Guojin Zhang; Bo Li; Pan Li; Zhixi Fu

doi:10.3389/fpls.2024.1367917

A new species, Aster yaoshanensis (Asteracae, Astereae), from Guangxi (China), based on morphology and molecular phylogenetic data

Front Plant Sci. 2024 Apr 2:15:1367917. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1367917. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Xinyi Zheng^{1

2}, Kun Qin³, Tingyu Li², Tianmeng Qu², Junjia Luo¹, Guojin Zhang⁴, Bo Li⁵, Pan Li⁶, Zhixi Fu^{1

2

7}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Land Resources Evaluation and Monitoring in Southwest, Sichuan Normal University, Ministry of Education, Chengdu, China.
² College of Life Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China.
³ Department of Protection, Dayaoshan Mountain National Nature Reserve, Laibin, China.
⁴ College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
⁵ Sichuan Environmental Monitoring Center, Chengdu, China.
⁶ College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁷ Sustainable Development Research Center of Resources and Environment of Western Sichuan, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

Aster yaoshanensis sp. nov., a new species of the family Asteraceae is here described and illustrated. The species is presently known only from rock crevices of mountain valleys in Dayaoshan National Nature Reserve, Guangxi autonomous region, China. Phylogenetic analyses based on ITS sequences and complete plastome data have shown that this new species is a member of genus Aster with high support. Morphologically, it mostly resembles A. jishouensis, but it can be easily distinguished from the latter by bract indumentum (glabrous except margin ciliate vs. villous especially on veins abaxially, glabrous adaxially) and color (green vs. purple), shorter corolla (3.2-3.5 mm vs. 4.5-5.3 mm), bract stalk (obvious, ca.1.2 mm vs. sessile), and different distribution (Guangxi vs. Hunan). The detailed description, distribution map, and photos are provided. This study further elucidates the species identification, phylogeny and characteristic evolution of Aster.

Keywords: Aster; Asteraceae; Guangxi; new species; phylogeny.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32000158, 31970225), the National Science and Technology Fundamental Resources Investigation Program of China (No. 2021XJKK0702), the Foundation of Sustainable Development Research Center of Resources and Environment of Western Sichuan, Sichuan Normal University (No. 2020CXZYHJZX03), Key Laboratory of Chemistry in Ethnic Medicinal Resources (Yunnan Minzu University), State Ethnic Affairs Commission & Ministry of Education (No. MZY2301) and Laboratory equipment research projects, Sichuan Normal University (No. SYJS20220014).