Caltha dysosmoides is a completely new plant species discovered in China

Xinhua News Agency, Chengdu, Nov. 6 (Reporter Chen Di) On the 6th, the reporter learned from the Management Bureau of the Xiaozhaizigou National Nature Reserve in Beichuan County, Sichuan Province that after three years of scientific investigation and verification, a new plant species has been confirmed as discovered in the reserve: Caltha dysosmoides.

It is understood that the person who first discovered this species and brought it to the attention of botanical experts was Zhang Tao, an employee of the Xiaozhaizi Reserve. On April 27, 2013, he first discovered this peculiar plant while building a small research cabin in the Shuicaokou area of the Beichuan Piankou Nature Reserve. Therefore, the Latin name of this new species is Caltha dysosmoides Tao Zhang et al, literally translated as "marsh marigold resembling Dysosma versipellis," and the first namer is Zhang Tao. In view of the fact that the new species was first discovered in Beichuan, Zhang Tao named it in Chinese "Beichuan lüticao" (Beichuan marsh marigold).

Since its discovery in 2013, Chinese experts have spent more than three years conducting field surveys, literature reviews and specimen comparisons, and with the support of molecular phylogenetic results from combined nuclear gene and chloroplast gene tree-building analysis, they concluded that this species is clearly distinct from all known species of the genus Caltha in such characteristics as finely serrated leaf margins, drooping pedicels, scarlet flowers, and broad and flat anther connective, and finally confirmed it as a new species -- Caltha dysosmoides. The research results have recently been published in the plant taxonomy journal Phytoaxa (an SCI journal).

It is reported that Caltha dysosmoides grows in evergreen deciduous broad-leaved forest belts, mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest belts, subalpine coniferous forest belts, and alpine meadows. This species usually grows beside valley streams or in wet meadows, and sometimes also grows on grassy slopes or in relatively shady and humid places under forests.