Faberiopsis C. Shih & Y. L. Chen.

Herbs, perennial, often rosulate, with rhizomes. Stem leafy or ± leafless. Leaves lyrately pinnate or undivided, leathery. Capitula with 5-30 florets. Involucre ± narrowly cylindric to ± narrowly campanulate. Phyllaries mostly glabrous; outer phyllaries in several series, gradually longer centripetally, often conspicuously imbricate, longest ca. 1/2 as long as inner ones; inner phyllaries 5-14, ± equal in length, ± linear-lanceolate to linear. Receptacle naked. Florets reddish to bluish purple. Achene brown to reddish brown, subcylindric to narrowly ellipsoid, rather weakly compressed, with 5 main ribs and 1 or 2 narrower ribs in between, apex truncate. Pappus brownish, single, of strong scabrid bristles.

Systematic placement and circumscription of the genus have been revised based on molecular phylogenetic analyses of subtribes Lactucinae and Crepidinae (J. W. Zhang & N. Kilian, in prep.; N. Kilian et al., in prep.). N. Kilian et al. (in V. A. Funk et al., Syst. Evol. Biogeogr. Compositae, 348-350. 2009) placed Faberia in subtribe Crepidinae, but now ITS phylogenies show it on a very basal branch in subtribe Lactucinae. Recent additions to the genus by Sennikov (Komarovia 5: 109-110. 2008) are based on a different genus concept and are, as far as relevant for the flora of China, not supported. Karyological studies (Y. Liu, T. Deng & Q. E. Yang, pers. comm.) have revealed that the four species investigated have the unusual basic chromosome number of x = 17, perhaps indicating a hybrid origin of this genus.

Prenanthes glandulosa Dunn (J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 35: 514. 1903), which was initially placed by the first author in Notoseris (N. glandulosa (Dunn) C. Shih), is only known from the holotype at K, a piece of a flowering plant raised from seeds collected in "West China." It seems to be a distinct species, perhaps referable to Faberia, as may be assumed from the involucre (purplish, inner phyllaries ca. 6, outer ones linear as in F. lancifolia), the 10-12 blue (or purple?) florets, and the pale straw-colored pappus. The lower leaves have a broadly ovate blade with cordate base and a distinct, basally sheathlike widened and clasping petiole. The axes of the paniculiform to corymbiform synflorescence are densely glandular hairy, a feature otherwise not known from Faberia.

● Seven species: China.

(Authors: Shi Zhu (石铸 Shih Chu); Norbert Kilian)