57. Cicerbita Wallroth, Sched. Crit. 433. 1822.
岩参属 yan shen shu
Authors: Zhu Shi & Norbert Kilian
Cephalorrhynchus Boissier; Galathenium Nuttall; Mycelis Cassini.
Herbs, perennial, often with rhizomes. Stem leafy. Leaves pinnate, lyrately pinnate, or undivided. Capitula with 5-20[-30] florets. Involucre narrowly to broadly cylindric or campanulate. Phyllaries glabrous [or abaxially appressed hairy]; outer phyllaries in several series, gradually longer centripetally, ± imbricate, longest ca. 1/2(-3/4) as long as inner ones; inner phyllaries 5-10, ± equal in length, ± linear-lanceolate to linear. Receptacle naked. Florets bluish or purplish, exceptionally white. Achene some shade of brown, subcylindric, ± ellipsoid, or ± fusiform, weakly to distinctly compressed, with 5 main ribs (2 lateral and sometimes strongly enlarged, 1 median ventrally, and 2 median dorsally), also with 0-2 slender ribs in between main ribs, apex truncate, attenuate, or beaked. Pappus white, single of slender scabrid bristles or double and with an additional outer row of short hairs.
Probably ca. 20-30 species: C and SW Asia, Europe; seven species (five endemic) in China.
The circumscription of Cicerbita has been heavily in debate since its creation. The genus is used here in a revised circumscription inferred from most recent molecular phylogenetic and morphological studies of the entire subtribe (N. Kilian et al., in prep.), but its circumscription is still not settled, in particular concerning the species of C and SW Asia. Its concept with respect to the taxa occurring in China is therefore tentative and aims at keeping the nomenclatural changes to a minimum. Molecular phylogenetic analyses by N. Kilian et al. (in prep.) revealed that Chaetoseris as treated in FRPS (80(1): 266-283. 1997) is diphyletic. Whereas the larger part of the genus, including C. lyriformis (= Melanoseris beesiana), which provides the type of the generic name, is nested in the genus Melanoseris, the smaller part forms a distant clade close to Cicerbita (generic name typified by C. alpina Wallroth). The latter clade includes Chaetoseris sect. Roborovskia Tzvelev (Rast. Tsentral. Azii 14b: 98. 2008) and Cicerbita azurea. We place this clade here tentatively in Cicerbita. We, moreover, follow Tzvelev (Bot. Zhurn. 92: 1756. 2007; Rast. Tsentral. Azii 14b: 100. 2008) in placing Youngia sect. Cyanoglossa S. W. Liu & T. N. Ho (originally with two species described by S. W. Liu & T. N. Ho, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 39: 553-556. 2001; further two species added by Tzvelev, loc. cit.: 2007) in close proximity to Chaetoseris sect. Roborovskia. It was so far not possible to study material of any of these species, as the material was not made available on loan to us. We place this group (Chaetoseris sect. Cyanoglossa (S. W. Liu & T. N. Ho) Tzvelev) tentatively in Cicerbita. Finally, we leave Cicerbita thianschanica, which has not been included so far in the aforementioned molecular phylogenetic studies, in Cicerbita.
