Callicarpa L. (Lamiaceae) consists of 140 species, which are trees or shrubs, and there are about 53 species in China mainly distributed south to the Yangtze River. Some plants of Callicarpa are used as traditional medicine in China. In addition, they are also landscape plant with potential of utilization and development due to the abundant flowers and the colourful fruits.

In recent years, the wild Callicarpa resources are decreasing gradually. To establish Callicarpa germplasm repositories constituted by species introduced from the wild will help conserve the genetic diversity of this genus and counter the genetic erosion caused by natural or artificial elements.

Researchers from Wuhan Botanical Garden(WBG) have collected 49 taxa of Callicarpa since 2021, accounting 75% of the taxa in China. In the process, a Callicarpa species with quite a large population cultivated in WBG attracted the attention of the researchers. The species has procumbent branches, evergreen leaves, white fruits, scarless nodes and stellate pubescence free fruits, distinguishing this species from any other known Callicarpa species.

The specimens of this species were collected in Yongshun and Shimen, Hunan, China. Based on detailed morphological comparison and molecular phylogenetic studies, researchers determined that it was a new species and named it Callicarpa yongshunensis Wen B.Xu, Xiao D.Li & Yan L.Liu.

The species is morphologically similar to C. luteopunctata H. T. Chang and C. giraldii Hesse ex Rehd. in the inflorescence, glandular colour and leaf shape features, but differs with its procumbent, evergreen shrub and white fruits; while its white fruits are similar to those of C. longifolia Lamk, but its procumbent, scarless nodes and stellate pubescence free fruits distinguishes it from the latter.

The paper entitled “Callicarpa yongshunensis(Lamiaceae): A new species from Hunan, China” was published in PhytoKeys.

Morphological characteristics of Callicarpa yongshunensis (Image by WBG)

Microscopic morphological characteristics of Callicarpa yongshunensis flower (Image by WBG)