Abstract:

Aims: Henan Province is located in the central part of China. Its complex and diverse geographical environment play an important role in the region’s rich plant diversity. A large number of plant specimens collected by predecessors have provided strong support for the publication of Flora of Henan. However, the Flora of Henan (Supplement and Revision) lacked a great deal of field investigation and omitted some previously published new records. We have updated the catalog to clarify the wild woody plant resources in Henan Province.

Methods: Based on a review of published literature, including all specimens from Henan Province preserved in all the herbariums in China, and continuous field survey of all mountains in Henan Province during the past 5 years, this paper updates the checklist of wild woody plants in Henan Province, China. In this new checklist, the delimitation and arrangement of plant families followed new systems primarily based on molecular phylogenetics.

Results: According to the revision of Flora of China, we recorded a total of 984 species with 32 subspecies, 148 varieties and 11 forms of wild woody plants in this checklist. This included synonyms of 5 genera, 102 species, 21 subspecies and 24 varieties from Flora of China, together with 6 genera, 194 species, 20 subspecies, 35 varieties and 1 form from Flora of Henan. 168 new records and 50 problematical taxa of wild woody plants from Flora of Henan were also listed in this checklist.

Conclusion: Our results show that continuous field survey of plant diversity is still important in the Shangcheng, Xinxian, Tongbai, Xichuan, Lushi, and Lingbao in provincial boundary counties in Henan Province.

Key words: germplasm resources, problematical taxa, synonyms, new records, wild species