Scientists have discovered a new plant indigenous to Taiwan after correcting a previous identification error, the Shei-pa National Park Headquarters said on Friday.
The scientists have named the thistle Cirsium taiwanense Y. H. Tseng & Chih Y. Chang, after members of the National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) research team that discovered the flower in collaboration with the national park.
The newly classified plant has spider web-like hairs on the back of its leaves and was previously misidentified as a thistle discovered by Japanese botanist Shiro Kitamura, the headquarters said.
Photo provided by Chang Chih-yi via Shei-pa National Park Headquarters
During its monthly field trips to the park, the research team discovered subtle differences between the local thistle and that described by Kitamura, it said.
Consulting Kitamura’s field notes, the team learned that the thistle he discovered has red flowers instead of the local thistle’s yellow ones, but the discrepancy went unnoticed during the original identification because dried botanical samples that had lost their color were used, the headquarters said.
Further study revealed that the local thistle has more bracts and flowers than Kitamura’s, and that it has 32 chromosomes compared with Kitamura’s 34, based on which the plant was classified as a formerly unknown species, it said.
NCHU professors Chang Chih-yi (張之毅) and Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) published a study on their findings earlier this year and were credited as the discoverers of the new species, the headquarters said.
The local thistle can be found at altitudes of 2,200m to 3,100m along the park’s Syuedong Line (雪東線) path, especially near its entrance at the Crying Slope (哭坡), it said.
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