Cardamine yunnanensis Franch.

A critical comparison of the type collection of Cardamine yunnanensis, Delavay 1843 (holotype, P; isotypes, E, F, P, US), with those of all the names synonymized above (except the later homonym C. longipedicellata) reveals the remarkable similarities among them in all aspects of flowers, fruit, and indumentum. They all have angled stems, auriculate petiolar bases, compound leaves, petiolulate terminal and often lateral leaflets, often oblique bases of lateral leaflets, and sparsely pilose young ovaries and/or fruit. The principal differences among them, which are all trivial, are in the number, shape, and margin of leaflets and length of style. In fact, the type collection of C. yunnanensis includes plants with styles 0.5-3 mm. Unfortunately, none of the protologues of the taxa synonymized above can provide a comparison with C. yunnanensis, and this perhaps explains why the basic similarities between those taxa and C. yunnanensis were overlooked. The present authors believe that none of the taxa synonymized above merits recognition at specific or infraspecific rank. They have also examined the "types" of the invalid names C. dubia H. Li (Fl. Dulongjiang Region, 75. 1993, not Zapalowicz, 1912) and C. gongshanensis H. Li (loc. cit.; both nomina nuda), and these taxa clearly belong to C. yunnanensis. Although they have not examined the type collection of C. longipedicellata, the detailed description in the protologue corresponds perfectly well with typical plants of C. yunnanensis.

Herbs short-lived perennial with slender rhizomes, rarely annual, (10-)15-45(-60) cm tall, often pilose or puberulent, sometimes glabrescent distally. Stems simple or branched from base, angled. Basal leaves petiolate, often withered by flowering, 3-5-foliolate, rarely simple; petiole 1-6(-8) cm; leaf blade or terminal leaflet suborbicular, ovate, or lanceolate, 0.5-3 × 0.5-2.5 cm, dentate, crenate, or rarely subsinuate; lateral leaflets absent or 1 or 2 pairs. Middle cauline leaves 3-7-foliolate; petiole (1-)2-7(-8.5) cm, basally auriculate; auricles toothlike, linear, or lanceolate, (0.4-)1-3(-4) × 0.2-1(-1.5) mm; terminal leaflet lanceolate, elliptic, oblong, ovate, or suborbicular, (1-)1.3-4.5(-6) × (0.4-)0.6-2(-3) cm, sparsely pilose adaxially, often glabrous abaxially, with a petiolule (2-)4-14(-20) mm, base obtuse or cuneate, margin ciliate to ciliolate and dentate, crenate, sinuate, or rarely repand, apex acute or acuminate; lateral leaflets 1-3 pairs, shortly petiolulate to subsessile, similar to terminal one and often oblique at base. Uppermost leaves often trifoliolate, rarely simple. Fruiting pedicels ascending or divaricate, 0.5-1.8(-2.3) cm, straight, slender. Sepals oblong or nearly ovate, 2-3 × 1-1.5 mm, base not saccate. Petals white, obovate, (2.5-)3.5-5(-6) × 2-3 mm, not clawed. Median filament pairs 2.5-4 mm, lateral pair 2-3 mm; anthers oblong, 0.5-0.8 mm. Ovules 8-18 per ovary. Fruit linear, 1.5-2.8(-3) cm × 1-1.3 mm; valves smooth, sparsely pilose; style (0.5-)1-2.5(-3.5) mm. Seeds brown, narrowly oblong, 1.3-1.8 × 0.7-1 mm, wingless. Fl. Mar-Jul, fr. Apr-Sep.

Himalaya (Kashmir to Bhutan), W. China.

Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sikkim].

2000-3400 m

Moist shady places, mountain slopes, valleys, grasslands, meadows, thickets, forest openings, damp stream beds; 900-4200 m.

Cardamine bijiangensis W. T. Wang; C. hirsuta var. oxycarpa J. D. Hooker & T. Anderson; C. heterophylla T. Y. Cheo & R. C. Fang (1980), not Host (1797), nor Lapeyrouse (1813), nor Bory (1820), nor Hooker (1835), nor (Nuttall) Wood (1870), nor (J. G. A. Forster) O. E. Schulz (1903); C. inayatii O. E. Schulz; C. levicaulis W. T. Wang; C. longipedicellata Z. M. Tan & G. H. Chen (1996), not Rollins (1940); C. longistyla W. T. Wang; C. muliensis W. T. Wang; C. sikkimensis H. Hara; C. sinica Rashid & H. Ohba; C. weixiensis W. T. Wang.