Xinfen Gao

Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences · Herbarium

Interspecific hybridization in the genus Rosa (Rosaceae) is a common natural phenomenon. Hybrids often exhibit heterosis and new combinations of traits, which can provide raw materials for horticultural breeding. DNA barcodes and microsatellites have been proposed to facilitate species discrimination and hybrid detection. However, most SSR markers...

The genera Uraria Desv. and Christia Moench are sister genera belonging to the tribe Desmodieae (Fabaceae), and most species are used as important medicinal or ornamental plants. Evolutionary patterns and intergeneric delimitation of these genera have long been controversial. In the present study, the chromosome numbers and karyotypes of six Uraria...

A new species, Primula lizipingensis W.B.Ju, L.Y.He & X.F.Gao, found in Shimian County, Sichuan, China, is described and illustrated. It is morphologically similar to P. rhodochroa and P. socialis , but can be distinguished from them in having shorter plants covering with white farinose, leaf margin sharply dentate above the middle, the leaf blade...

Mazus motuoensis W.B.Ju, Bo Xu bis & X.F.Gao is a newly described species found in Xizang Autonomous Region, China. Morphologically, this species differs from all the other known Mazus species by having erect perennial herb form with a rhizome, presence of multicellular hairs, without basal leaves, opposite arrangement of stem leaves, and corolla l...

Citation: Li, M.; Tian, C.-F.; Idrees, M.; Pathak, M.; Xiong, X.-H.; Gao, X.-F.; Wang, X.-R. Pollen Morphology in Sorbus L. (Rosaceae) and Its Taxonomic Implications. Plants 2023, 12, 3318. https://doi.org/10.3390/ plants12183318 Academic Editors: These authors contributed equally to this work. Abstract: The genus Sorbus L. in the Rosaceae family i...

The pollen morphology of 20 species from Blumea and Cyathocline Cass. was investigated using a light microscope (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to explore their taxonomic significance. This study showed that pollen grains of these species were usually tricolporate, rarely tetracolporate (B. sinuata). Nine pollen types were distinguishab...

We present a description of a newly discovered species, Primula medogensis , found in southern Xizang, China. Additionally, we explore distinctive morphological characteristics that aid in its taxonomy. The new species belongs to sect. Cordifoliae and exhibits morphological similarities to P. baileyana and P. rotundifolia . However, it can be disti...

Plant Volatile components are an ecological adaptation mechanism of plants that can reflect species differences and environment information where it is located. The alpine shrub Rosa sericea complex consists of several allied species, which are morphologically similar and difficult to distinguish, they are typical distribution along the elevation i...

Introduction Indigofera L. is the third largest genus in Fabaceae and includes economically important species that are used for indigo dye-producing, medicinal, ornamental, and soil and water conservation. The genus is taxonomically difficult due to the high level of overlap in morphological characters of interspecies, fewer reliability states for...

Intercontinental disjunct distributions can arise either from vicariance, from long-distance dispersal, or through extinction of an ancestral population with a broader distribution. Tectariaceae s.l., a clade of ferns in Polypodiales with ca. 300 species mainly distributed in the tropics and subtropics, provide an excellent opportunity to investiga...

Rubus L. (Rosaceae, Rosoideae) contains around 700 species distributed on all continents except Antarctica, with the highest species diversity in temperate to subtropical regions of the northern hemisphere. The taxonomy of Rubus is challenging due to the frequency of polyploidy, hybridization and apomixis. Previous studies mostly sampled sparsely a...

Global biodiversity is contracting rapidly due to potent anthropogenic activities and severe climate change. Wild populations of Rosa chinensis var. spontanea and Rosa lucidissima are rare species endemic to China, as well as important germplasm resources for rose breeding. However, these populations are at acute risk of extinction and require urge...

The papilionoid legume genus Sophora (Fabaceae) exhibits a worldwide distribution, but a phylogenetic framework to understand the evolution of this group is lacking to date. Previous studies have demonstrated that Sophora is not monophyletic and might include Ammodendron, Ammothamnus, and Echinosophora, but the relationships among these four genera...

This paper describes and illustrates a new species of Primulaceae, Primula wolongensis sp. nov. from Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province, China. It is very rare and currently only known from its type locality. The new species belongs to subsection Chartacea of the section Petiolares on account of lacking bud scales at flowering, bein...

A revision of the wild species in the genus Malus Mill. (Rosaceae) is presented based on numerical analyses and specimens from herbaria around the world, while cultivated species such as Malus domestica (Suckow) Borkh. are not included because of their complicated domestication history. Infra- and interspecific morphological variation and species d...

In this research, the pollen morphology of the Rosa sericea complex has been studied by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The present study aimed to provide baseline information for the taxonomic identification of the R. sericea complex taxa. The pollen sculpture, outline, and aperture show variability in the studied taxa. The R. sericea complex...

The genus Campylotropis Bunge (Desmodieae, Papilionoideae) comprises about 37 species distributed in temperate and tropical Asia. Despite the great potential in soil conservation, horticulture, and medicine usage, little is known about the evolutionary history and phylogenetic relationships of Campylotropis due to insufficient genetic resources. He...

Taxon delimitation and identification are important in many areas of biology, especially in taxonomy and conservation. Taxonomic treatment is required to establish and justify recommendations in conservation biology for the group being considered. Imperfect and controversial taxon-omy can undermine conservation assessment. We studied 71 populations...

The genus Rosa comprises more than 150 species spread across three subgenera, Hesperhodos, Hulthemia, and Rosa, most of which have high economic and ecological values. Here, we report 31 complete plastomes that belong to the genus Rosa, with the aim of better understanding the evolution and divergence of genes of the plastome in this genus. A compa...

As the distribution center of Rosa in the world, China has abundant wild germplasm resources, which can contribute to the breeding of modern roses. To explore the potential value of wild roses distributed in the Sichuan–Tibet region, solid phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) were used to determine the volat...

Tribe Lilieae, encompassing Lilium, Notholirion, Cardiocrinum, and Fritillaria, includes economically important crops with a horticultural and medicinal value. It is considered to be a core lineage of Liliaceae, but phylogenetic relationships within it, and the timing of the origin of individual clades, remain incompletely resolved. To address thes...

A cytotaxonomic study was conducted of 38 fern species from China, based on collections from Chongqing, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Xizang, and Yunnan provinces, and their reproductive modes are estimated by counting the spore numbers per sporangium. The chromosome numbers of 11 species are reported here for the first time, and cytotaxonomy...

The genus Sophora (Fabaceae) is one of the taxonomically challenging genera with high economic and medical values. In this study, the pollen morphology of 43 samples of 27 species, 4 subspecies, and 4 varieties of the genus Sophora and 3 closely related genera was examined using scanning electron microscopy to evaluate the pollen diversity of the g...

The taxonomy and evolutionary history of Sophora L., a genus with high economic and medicinal value, remain uncertain due to the absence of genetic resource (especially in China) and low polymorphism of molecular markers. Our aim was to elucidate the molecular evolution and phylogenetic relationships in chloroplast genomes of Sophora species in the...

A new species, Lysimachia xuyongensis X.F.Gao & W.B.Ju, from China is described and illustrated. The new species morphologically resembles L. miyiensis, L. paridiformis var. stenophylla and L. phyllocephala var. polycephala, but it clearly differs by having stems prostrate at base, dense white multicellular hairs, leave 4, lower scalelike, leaf bla...

The Old World fern genera Hypodematium and Leucostegia had long been placed in the families Dryopteridaceae and Davalliaceae, respectively, before the advent of molecular phylogenetics. Recent molecular studies confirmed the recognition of the family Hypodematiaceae composed of these two genera, but the relationships within each of these two genera...

Lycopodiaceae are one of the oldest lineages of any living vascular plants and contain about 400 species distributed on all continents except Antarctica, with its highest diversity in tropical regions. Previous studies on the morphology, anatomy, and molecular systematics of Lycopodiaceae have made substantial progress in understanding the diversit...

The Hengduan Mountains region is an important hotspot of alpine plant diversity and endemism. Acanthochlamys bracteata is a threatened monotypic genus species endemic to Hengduan Mountains. In this study, we present a high‐quality, chromosome‐level reference genome for A. bracteata, constructed using long reads, short reads, and Hi‐C technology. We...

• Most species in the genus Cypripedium (Cypripedioideae) produce trap flowers, making it a model lineage to study deceptive pollination. Floral attractants in most species studied appear to target bee species of different sizes. However, more recent publications report fly pollination in some subalpine species, suggesting novel suites of adaptive...

Primula dujiangyanensis, a new species from Dujiangyan, Sichuan of China, is described and illustrated here. The new species is morphologically similar to P. kialensis and P. pengzhouensis, but it can be distinguished from the latter species by dense white hairs at roots, long stolons, smaller plants and leaves, solitary scape arising from leaf ros...

Species of Tulipa (Liliaceae) are of great horticultural importance and are distributed across Europe, North Africa, and Asia. The Tien Shan Mountain is one of the primary diversity centres of Tulipa, but the molecular studies of Tulipa species from this location are lacking. In our study, we assembled four Tulipa plastid genomes from the Tien Shan...

In this research, the fruits and seeds' surface morphological features and their taxo-nomic significance were determined. Additionally, useful traits for delimitation of taxa of Rosa sericea complex were studied. In this research, three taxa of the complex R. sericea, R. omeiensis, and R. sikangensis have been studied. A total of 41 populations and...

Supplementary plates

The genus Similisinocarum Cauwet & Farille (Apiaceae, Apioideae), was first described by Cauwet & Farille in 1984, but it has been considered as a synonym of Sinocarum H.Wolff ex R.H. Shan & F.T. Pu. In this study, Simlisinocarum normanianum, the type species of Similisinocarum was found in China for the first time, and the molecular phylogenetic e...

Flowering plants always attract animals providing rewards or deceptive signals to gain reproductive success. However, there is no well-documented reporting about a pollination mechanism with both rewards and deceptive signals by a same object. We found Cypripedium wardii flowers seem to attract visitors by the white pseudopollenlike trichomes on la...

The genus Flemingia belonging to the family Leguminosae (Papilionoideae, Phaseoleae, Cajaninae) comprises ca. 30–35 species and is distributed mainly in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Oceania. Previous systematic studies of the genus Flemingia were based on morphology only, or aimed at reconstructing relationships, delimiting distinct ev...

Lectotypifications of Photinia beckii, Ph. chingiana, Ph. crassifolia, Ph. crassifolia var. denticulata (synonym of Ph. crassifolia), Ph. glomerata, Ph. serrulata var. congestiflora (synonym of Ph. glomerata), Ph. lindleyana var. yunnanensis (synonym of Ph. glomerata), Ph. mairei, Ph. serrulata var. prunifolia (synonym of Ph. prunifolia), Ph. serru...

A taxonomic study of the Hypodematium glabrum complex (Hypodematiaceae) is presented based on morphological evidence. Five species are recognized in this complex, four of which are described as new. The four new species are all from Yunnan, China and include H. brevipilosum sp. nov., H. parvisorum sp. nov, H. subglabrum sp. nov, and H. truncatum sp...

Lectotypifications of Eriobotrya ambigua, E. bengalensis f. contracta, E. bengalensis f. multinervata, Opa metrosideros (synonym of E. metrosideros), Photinia griffithii (synonym of E. griffithii), E. prionophylla are designated here, and a neotype is designated for Mespilus bengalensis (≡ E. bengalensis). The protologues of these names and the orig...

Hypodematium shingii (Hypodematiaceae), a new fern species, is described and illustrated from limestone regions in southern China and Southeast Asia. Hypodematium shingii is different from true H. crenatum in morphology and distribution.

Morphometric analysis based on 40 morphological (quantitative and qualitative) characters were used to evaluate the patterns of morphological variations and to better understand the taxonomic relationship of the whole genus of Eriobotrya. Cluster analysis, principal component analysis and principal coordinate analysis were performed for both quanti...

Eriobotrya fusca Kuan ex Gao & Idrees, belonging to the family Rosaceae, a new species from Yunnan Province, China is described and illustrated based on both morphological and molecular data. The new species resembles closely morphologically to E. salwinensis Hand.-Mazz., but differs from it by having elliptic-oblong or oblong-ovate leaves, fewer p...

We studied hybrid interactions of Lilium meleagrinum, Lilium gongshanense, and Lilium saluenense using an integrative approach combining population genetics, fieldwork, and phenological research. These three species occur along an elevational gradient, with L. meleagrinum occurring at lower elevations, L. saluenense at higher elevations, and L. gon...

The authors regret that in the published article the affiliation for the author Xinfen Gao was incorrectly denoted as ‘c’. Xinfen Gao is in fact affiliated with ‘b’: Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Sorbus harrowiana (≡Pyrus harrowiana), previously considered a synonym of Sorbus insignis (≡Pyrus in-signis) in the Flora of China, is reinstated here and shown to be distinct from S. insignis, based on mor-phometric analysis, coupled with herbarium and field investigation. We also present for the first-time full descriptions, distributional record...

Endophytic insect pathogenic fungi of the order Hypocreales reside in plant tissues as mutualistic partners that protect plants against insect herbivores. Caterpillar fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis (order: Hypocreales, family: Ophiocordycipitaceae) is often described as an entomophagous fungus that parasitizes lepidopteran larvae of the ghost moth...

Indigofera yuanjiangensis X.F. Gao & Xue Li Zhao (Fabaceae), a new species from Yunnan, China, is described and illustrated. Information about its distribution, habitat, and phenology is also provided. The species is morphologically similar to I. megaphylla, I. esquirolii and I. sticta, but they differ in the leaf length, leaflet number, leaflet si...

A taxonomic study of Hypodematium (Hypodematiaceae) from Japan is presented. Three species are recognized including H. faurei, H. glanduloso-pilosum, and H. ryukyuense (sp. nov.).

Following evidence from morphology and molecular phylogenies, we integrated Nomocharis Franchet (1889: 113) into Lilium Linnaeus (1753: 302) and made the combination L. farreri (W.E.Evans) Y.D.Gao in Gao & Gao (2016: 207) based on Nomocharis farreri (W.E.Evans 1925: 20) Harrow (1928: 76). Unfortunately, this combination in Lilium was blocked by L....

The phylogenetic relationships of genus Eriobotrya Lindl. (Rosaceae) was evaluated based on the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacers (ITS) sequence using 22 wild species of Eriobotrya, and 4 closest genera were used as an outgroup (Mespilus germanica L., Malus sieboldii (Regel) Rehder, Photinia beauverdiana C.K Schneid. and Rhaphiolepis i...

Background and Objectives: Flow cytometry is the most attractive and accurate technique for rapid determination of plant genome size because it is relatively fast, easy and provides information on a very large number of nuclei. The aims of the investigations were to develop a suitable protocol and best DNA calibration standard for the assessment of...

Sorbus gongshanensissp. nov. , a new species from the Hengduan Mountains China, is described and illustrated. It is similar to S. kurzii from China (Yunnan & Xizang), Nepal, and Sikkim in the size of the leaflets, glabrous veins, persistent (sometimes) herbaceous stipules and reddish brown villous inflorescences and red fruits, but differs in its s...

Lepisoroid ferns (tribe Lepisoreae, Polypodiaceae) are arguably one of the most confusing fern groups in Polypodiaceae in terms of delimitation of genera largely because of their simple morphology. Previous molecular studies either had very small taxon sampling of the non-Lepisorus genera and did not well resolve the relationships among these gener...

The taxonomy of the cliff fern family Woodsiaceae has been controversial with 22–59 species in 1–7 genera recognized in various classifications. This is mainly due to limited taxon sampling (up to 33 accessions representing up to 21 species) and poor resolution in molecular studies so far. In the present study, DNA sequences of five plastid markers...

The distinction between hybrids and species of hybrid origin is significant for plant diversity conservation. Interspecific hybridization within the genus Rosa is a common phenomenon. Based on field observation, we hypothesized that one previously published species, Rosa pseudobanksiae (endangered category: CR) might be a hybrid. In this study, we...

As an ancient lineage of ferns, Ophioglossaceae are evolutionarily among the most fascinating because they have the highest chromosome count of any known organism as well as the presence of sporophores, subterranean gametophytes, eusporangiate sporangia without annuli, and endophytic fungi. Previous studies have produced conflicting results, identi...

In present research, we revised the taxonomy of Flemingia for the whole Indochinese floristic region, which consist of 24 species and one variety. China was the most diversified country with 18 species of Flemingia and one variety, followed by Myanmar (16 species), Thailand (13 species and one variety), Vietnam (12 species and one variety), Laos (1...

The name Lilium tenii H.Léveillé (1909: 263) was assigned by Hector Léveillé to a specimen collected by Father Siméon Ten on 15 August 1907 from Dongchuan (Tong-Tchouan) of Yunnan Province, China. The name L. tenii has long been treated as a synonym for Lilium primulinum var. ochraceum (Franch.) Stearn (1948: 13). The treatment was based on the mon...

Acer pentaphyllum is a critically endangered maple confined to the valley of Yalong River in Southwest China. The whole chloroplast genome of A. pentaphyllum was 156,862 bp in length with a typical quadripartite structure, containing a large single-copy (LSC) region of 85,292 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,146 bp, and a pair of inverted...

The complete chloroplast genome of Rosa laevigata has been characterized by reference-based assembly using Illumina paired-end data. The complete cp genome is 156,342 bp in length, containing a large single-copy region of 85,459 bp, a small single-copy region of 18,785 bp, which are separated by a pair of inverted repeat regions of 26,049 bp, a tot...

Rubus is one of the most species-rich and most taxonomically challenging genera in Rosaceae. Pollen morphology of Rubus species has been described by many researchers but never in a comprehensive study. In this study, pollen morphology of 155 species and 13 varieties representing all 12 subgenera of Rubus was examined using scanning electron micros...

Pollen morphology of 27 species of Photinia sensu stricto and five closely related genera of subfamily Maloideae (Rosaceae) were studied in detail. Palynomorphological characteristics were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Comparative pollen analysis was accomplished based on pollen size, shape, polar and equatorial views, polar an...

A wide range of habitat conditions including elevation determine adaptative variation in a species. The study was carried out to investigate the anatomical variation of two common species of Rhododendron (R. anthopogon and R. lepidotum) growing between 3200 and 4700 m asl in Gokyo valley of Sagarmatha National Park, Khumbu, eastern Nepal. Seven ana...

The complete chloroplast (cp) genome of Rosa pricei Hayata has been characterized by reference-based assembly using Illumina paired-end data. The complete cp genome is 156,599 base pairs (bp) in length, containing a large single-copy region (LSC) of 85,732 bp, a small single-copy region (SSC) of 18,749 bp, which are separated by a pair of inverted...