Vincetoxicum is a genus of plants in the family Apocynaceae. It is distributed in Asia, especially in mountain ranges, and most of the known species occur in China and Japan. The expanded Vincetoxicum includes about 150 species. In recent years, new species of Vincetoxicum have been reported continuously. 

During a plant resource survey in Gongshan County, Yunnan Province in 2022, researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) and Wuhan Botanical Garden (WBG) discovered a special vine plant of the genus Vincetoxicum. After consulting relevant literature and comprehensive morphological character analysis, they finally confirmed that the species is new to botanical science. 

The new species was named as Vincetoxicum gongshanense to refer to the type locality Gongshan County, Yunnan, China. Related results were published in Taiwania.  

Vincetoxicum gongshanense is a liana to 2 meters. It is morphologically similar to V. silvestre, V. kerrii and V. biondioides by the habit of vines and linear lanceolate leaves, but can be distinguished by the leathery leaves, five basal veins, ovate-triangular sepals, yellow corolla, lanceolate corolla lobes, wide triangular corona and reniform pollinia. 

At present, Vincetoxicum gongshanense has only been found at the type locality with over 10 individuals, which are relatively rare, growing at the forest edge at an altitude of about 1560 meters,climbing on trees. The researchers assigned the conservation status of the new species as data deficient (DD), according to guideline for using the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) standard Red List Categories and Criteria. 

"The continuous discovery of new species indicates that more field investigation is needed to fully understand the exact number of Vincetoxicum species,” said SHEN Jianyong of XTBG.
 

Contact 

SHEN  Jianyong 

Department of Gardening and Horticulture, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China   

E-mail: shenjianyong@xtbg.ac.cn    

Published on: 24 April 2024 

Vincetoxicum gongshanense  (Image by SHEN Jianyong)  

Vincetoxicum gongshanense  (Image by SHEN Jianyong)