安徽碎米荠 an hui sui mi ji

Cardamine jinshaensis Q. H. Chen & T. L. Xu.

Herbs perennial, 11-35 cm tall, sparsely pilose or glabrous. Rhizomes stout, often without stolons. Stems erect, simple or sometimes 1- or 2-branched above, not flexuous. Basal leaves trifoliolate or simple; petiole 2-17 cm; terminal leaflet or leaf blade suborbicular or rarely ovate-orbicular or reniform-orbicular, 0.6-3.5 × 1-5 cm, base cordate or rarely subtruncate, margin crenate or rarely repand-crenate; petiolule of terminal leaflet 0.7-1.4 cm, that of lateral leaflets much shorter; lateral leaflets similar to terminal but much smaller. Cauline leaves 3(or 5)-foliolate; petiole 1.3-3.5 cm, base not auriculate; terminal leaflet ovate-orbicular or subreniform, 1.5-3 × 1-3.2 cm, with a petiolule to 6 mm, margin crenate or crenate-repand; lateral leaflets similar to terminal one, shortly petiolulate or subsessile. Fruiting pedicels divaricate to divaricate-ascending, 0.6-1.5 cm, slender. Sepals oblong, 2-2.8 × 0.8-1.2 mm, base not saccate. Petals white, spatulate, 4-6 × 1.5-2.5 mm, apex rounded. Median filament pairs 2.5-4 mm, lateral pair 1.5-2.5 mm; anthers oblong, 0.5-0.7 mm. Ovules 24-30 per ovary. Fruit linear, 2-4 cm × 1-1.5 mm; valves smooth, glabrous; style 1-3 mm. Seeds brown, oblong, 1.2-2 × 0.8-1.3 mm, wingless. Fl. and fr. Mar-May.

* Shady slopes, along ditches; near sea level to 1000 m. Anhui, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang.

The above first records from Hunan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang are based on T. L. Chen 777 (NAS), Tan Ceming & Xie Guowen 94273 (MO), and P. L. Chiu 1273 (MO), respectively.

Cardamine jinshaensis is hardly distinct from C. anhuiensis except for having leaflets repand-crenate and orbicular-ovate (vs. distinctly crenate and subreniform).

It is quite likely that Cardamine anhuiensis is conspecific with the earlier published C. glechomifolia H. Léveillé (Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 11: 495. 1913), which was described from Korea. The holotype of the latter is so fragmentary that additional collections from Korea and adjacent parts of China are needed to confirm whether on not the two are indeed the same taxon.