Menghua Zhang

• PhD at Jishou University

Ampelopsis is a genus of the grape family Vitaceae, discontinuously distributed in the temperate to subtropical zones of the Northern Hemisphere but mostly diversified in East Asia. Previous phylogenetic studies on Ampelopsis have mainly been based on a few chloroplast markers, resulting in unresolved phylogenetic relationships for the East Asian t...

Ohwia luteola (H. Ohashi & T. Nemoto) H. Ohashi is only known from one collection in Yunnan Province, China. It has not been recollected since its last collection in 1972. Here, we report the rediscovery of the species that means the first new record in Hunan Province, China. Based on fresh material, we present a revised morphological description o...

Panax (Araliaceae) is a small genus containing several well known medicinally important species. It has a disjunct distribution between Eastern Asia and Eastern North America, with most species from eastern Asia, especially the Himalayan‐Hengduan Mountains (HHM). This study used the genomic target enrichment method to obtain 358 nuclear ortholog lo...

A species could not be known to the world of science if it not be discovered and described, considerable number of new species are neglected due to the plant itself and some other external restricted factors. On the basis of morphological and molecular evidences, a new species previously identified as Salvia scapiformis is now described and illustr...

Based on molecular and morphological evidence, a new species of Salvia (Lamiaceae), Salvia glabrifolia D.G. Zhang & X.J. Long, from Hunan Province, China, is described and illustrated. Salvia glabrifolia is morphologically similar to S. cavaleriei var. simplicifolia, S. daiguii, and S. cavaleriei var. cavaleriei but is distinct by its glabrous stem...

In this study, we describe and illustrate a new species, Primula weiliei L.S.Yang, Z.K.Wu & G.W.Hu, from the Shennongjia Forestry District, Hubei Province in Central China. It is morphologically assigned to Primula sect. Aleuritia based on its dwarf and hairless habit, long petiole, fruits longer than calyx and covered by farina on the scape. This...

Selaginella austrotibetica, a new spikemoss species from China, is described. The species is epipetric and was found on a moss-covered rocky cliff by a riverbank. Morphologically, it is unlike any anisosporophyllous species in the genus Selaginella. However, it resembles species of the S. sanguinolenta group, especially similar to S. sajanensis in...

Selaginella delicatula is one of the most widespread and polymorphic species in Asia. Recent molecular-phylogenetic studies have been shown that this species is not monophyletic. Traditionally, two species described from India as Lycopodium flac cidum Bory and L. curvatum Dalz. have long been recognized as synonyms of S. deli catula (Desv. ex Poir....

Selaginella sanguinolenta group is widely distributed from the Himalayas to Siberia and the Russian Far East, including four to nine taxa. Despite progress in recent phylogenetic studies of the S. sanguinolenta group, the problem of species delimitation in this group remains. We revise the taxonomy of the S. sanguinolenta group based on an integrat...

A new species, Selaginella pseudotamariscina X. C. Zhang & C. W. Chen (Selaginellaceae), is described from Vietnam. The placement of this species within Selaginella subg. Stachygynandrum is assessed based on molecular phylogenetic analyses and morphological comparisons with related species. Molecular phylogenetic analyses suggest thatS. pseudotamar...

The taxonomy of Selaginella has been historically problematic due to the indistinguishable morphological characters within species complexes. The S. labordei group contains (S. subg. Stachygynandrum) 4–7 species, distributed from the Himalayas to eastern China. The taxonomy of this group was problematic due to few collections that were available to...

Different from the generally conserved plastomes (plastid genomes) of most land plants, the Selaginellaceae plastomes exhibit dynamic structure, high GC content and high substitution rates. Previous plastome analyses identified strong conflict on several clades in Selaginella, however the factors causing the conflictions and the impact on the phylo...

Selaginella iridescens (Selaginellaceae), a new species of spikemoss from Hainan Island, China, is described based on morphological and molecular evidence. The new species morphologically resembles S. pseudotamariscina from Vietnam which was recently recognized and segregated from S. tamariscina and S. pulvinata. Some characters of S. iridescens, i...

The Eurasian and Mediterranean Selaginella helvetica group is one of the taxonomically challenging groups in the cosmopolitan lycophyte genus Selaginella. Species of the S. helvetica group are all small plants with lax strobili composed of more or less isomorphic sporophylls (isosporophylls) that are basically non-resupinate. Owing to the similar a...

Saxifraga is the largest genus in Saxifragaceae and a characteristic component of the herbaceous flora of the temperate and alpine mountains in the Northern Hemisphere. Sect. Irregulares is a small group of 15‐20 species, representing one of the early‐diverged lineage in the genus characterized with unique zygomorphic flowers. We employed both nucl...

A new species of spikemoss from Yunnan Province of China, Selaginella dianzhongensis, is described and illustrated based on evidence from gross morphology, micromorphology and molecular phylogeny. S. dianzhongensis is most similar to S. amblyphylla in its habit of creeping stem, leaf size, and obviously dimorphic sporophylls, but is distinct by its...

A new species of Rosaceae from Central China, Prunus sunhangii D. G. Zhang & T. Deng, sp. nov. , is described and illustrated. The new species is placed in Prunus subgenus Cerasus by flower and fruit characteristics. It is most similar to Prunus cerasoides, but differs by having longitudinally 2-lobed apical petals, an acuminate leaf apex, 17-25...

Phytolacca exiensis, a new species of Phytolacca which was discovered from west of Hubei province, China, is discribed and illustrated in this paper. The placement of this new species is accessed based on molecular phylogenetic analysis of the nuclear ribosomal ITS and one chloroplast regions (psbA-trnH) sequences together with mophorlogical compar...

Heteropolygonatum wugongshanensis, a new species from tribe Polygonateae in subfamily Nolinoideae (Asparagaceae) from Jiangxi Province of China, is described and illustrated. The placement of this species within Heteropolygonatum is assessed based on morphological comparisons, chromosomal evidence and molecular phylogenetic analyses. The new specie...

Saxifraga kegangii, a new species of Saxifraga sect. Irregulares (Saxifragaceae) from Hunan province of central China, is described and illustrated. This new species can be easily distinguished from related taxa by its leaf shape and disc semiannular around the side of the ovary. Placement of this species within Saxifraga sect. Irregulares is asses...