Chinese researchers have discovered a new species of impatiens in southwest China’s Guizhou Province and named it Impatiens beipanjiangensis.
The yellow flowers were described in a paper published in a recent edition of the journal PhytoKeys.
The species is named after the Beipanjiang River Basin in Panzhou City, where a team of botanists first found the specimen in October 2019 during a field survey.
Xu Jian, a member of the team and a researcher with the Guizhou Botanical Garden said.
Botanists have so far located about 5,100 plants of the species mostly in the humid valley environment 1,300-1,500 meters above sea level.
The new species, which flowers in October and November, is similar to some other impatiens species in morphology but has significant differences in its sepals, pollen, seed, and other traits, according to the Chinese scientists.
Impatiens beipanjiangensis Jian Xu & H. F. Hu (Balsaminaceae), is a new species of Impatiens subg. Clavicarpa discovered in Guizhou, China, is described and illustrated in this study along with its molecular phylogenetic analysis.
Impatiens beipanjiangensis is similar to I. liboensis, I. chishuiensis and I. clavigera in morphology, but I. tubulosa has the closest relationship to it.
However, there are various ways in which the new species can be easily distinguished from these four species: Inferior nodes swollen rhizoid, pale green and with hooked outer sepals, longer lateral united petals, subovate auricle, deeper lower sepal and shorter spur that is reflexed towards the lower sepal.
Furthermore, I. beipanjiangensis is distinguished from other Impatiens species, based on morphological, micromorphological and palynological evidence and molecular data (PP 0.967).
NAN
