毛蓬子菜 mao peng zi cai

Galium verum f. tomentosum (C. A. Meyer) Nakai.

Leaf blade pubescent and scabrous adaxially. Ovary and mericarps pilose. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep.

Forests on mountain slopes, farmland sides, grasslands; 400-3100 m. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang [Japan].

The type of the name of this variety comes from SW Asia (S Azerbaijan: Talysh) and may not fully conform to the Chinese populations listed here. Although Nakai (Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 34: 50-51. 1920; J. Jap. Bot. 15: 348. 1939) and W. C. Chen (loc. cit.: 269) included Japan in the distribution of this taxon, its name is not mentioned in Fl. Japan. In the older literature, specimens with hairy ovaries and fruit, corresponding to this and the following Galium verum var. trachycarpum, often have been called G. ruthenicum Willdenow.

With respect to the synonymy one has to consider the following: Nakai (loc. cit. 1939) under Galium verum var. tomentosum "Nakai, comb. nov.," cited "Galium verum var. luteum f. tomentosum Nakai," where (loc. cit. 1920) he cited "G. verum var. c. Ledebour Fl. Ross. II. p. 415," where Ledebour wrote "c. caule fructibusque tomento denso vestitis. C. A. Meyer l.c. Hab. in provinciis caucasicis [in m. Talüsch, alt. 1100 hexap. (C. A. Meyer)," giving the reference to Meyer on p. 414 as "Ind. cauc. p. 54," i.e., Verz. Pfl. Casp. Meer. 54. 1831, where Meyer wrote "[var.] δ tomentosum. caule et mericarpiis tomento denso vestitis. In cacumine montium Talüsch prope pagum Drych, in rupestribus siccis sterilissimis (alt. 1100 hexap.)" It is evident, therefore, that Nakai in 1920 was not publishing the name of a new taxon but a status novus at the rank of forma with an indirect reference (allowed before 1953; Vienna Code, Art. 33.2) to the basionym, i.e., Meyer’s varietal name.