Gastrochilus wolongensis (Orchidaceae): a new species from Sichuan, China, based on molecular and morphological data

ABSTRACT

Gastrochilus wolongensis (Orchidaceae), a new orchid species from Sichuan Province, Southwest China, is described and illustrated. It morphologically resembles G. sinensis, but differs markedly from the latter in having black-purple stripes (vs. purplish-red spots) on the adaxial side of the petals and sepals, a reniform epichile densely covered with long papillate hairs (vs. sparsely pubescent) with purplish-red spots (vs. unspotted), and outside the sac of the hypochile with purplish-red stripes (vs. purplish-red spotted). The molecular phylogenetic analysis based on nuclear ribosome internal transcribed spacer (nrITS) and four chloroplast DNA fragments (matK, psbA-trnH, psbM-trnD, and trnL-F) of 36 Gastrochilus species showed that G. wolongensis was closely related to G. ciliaris and G. formosanus.

KEYWORDS:

• Gastrochilus
• Orchidaceae
• phylogeny
• systematic position
• taxonomy

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Feng Li for his help during the field trip in collecting materials and taking photos of G. sinensis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/20964129.2022.2101546

Additional information

Funding

Our work was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2020YFE0203200), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) program (Grant No. 2019QZKK0502), 2022 Central Finance Forestry Grassland Ecological Protection and Restoration National Park Subsidy Project, 2022 Subsidy Projects of Prohibited Developmental Areas from the Transfer Payment of the National Key Ecological Functional Areas, and Wild Plants Sharing and Service Platform of Sichuan Province.