Bull. Natn. Sci. Mus., Tokyo, Ser. B, 32(2), pp. 103–107, June 22, 2006

Notes on Parnassia kumaonica Nekr.
(Parnassiaceae) in Nepal
Shinobu Akiyama1 and Mahendra N. Subedi2
1

Department of Botany, National Science Museum, Tokyo,
4–1–1 Amakubo, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305–0005 Japan
E-mail: akiyama@kahaku.go.jp
2
Department of Plant Resources, Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation,
G. P. O. Box 9446, Kathmandu, Nepal

Abstract An additional description of Parnassia kumaonica Nekr. is given with sketches. Thisspecies is characterized by the petals with abruptly narrowed claw-like base. The key to distinguishfrom the resembling species in Nepal is also given.
Key words : Himalaya, Mustang, Nepal, Parnassia, Sino-Himalayan region

The flora and vegetation of Mustang District,
Central Nepal are remarkably different fromother districts in Nepal (Stainton 1972). Since
2000 research teams have been dispatched to thelower and upper Mustang to study the flora(Iokawa 2001, Noshiro and Amano 2002,
Miyamoto and Ikeda 2003). A Parnassia wascollected during these field researches.
The genus Parnassia is diversified in the SinoHimalayan floristic region. Hara (1979) recognized six species in Nepal. Four of which, P. chinensis Franch., P. kumaonica Nekr., P. pusilla
Wall. ex Arn., and P. tenella Hook. f. & Thomson, are similar to each other in having shortstems. But P. tenella is characterized by the darkgreen petals and undivided staminodes (Grierson1987). Parnassia chinensis and P. pusilla are similar in having white petals distinctly larger than
the sepals and trilobed staminodes, and studied indetail especially on the variations of the shapeand size and the marginal processes of the petals(Akiyama & Ohba 2001).
The Parnassia collected in Mustang is similar
to P. pusilla and P. chinensis in having cordate
basal leaves, short stems, and small flowers, butdiffers by the petals which are not distinctly larger than the sepals. Comparing with one of theisosyntype specimens deposited in BM and theoriginal description of P. kumaonica this Parnas-

sia is identified as P. kumaonica. In the originaldescription of P. kumaonica the size of sepals,petals, stamens, and staminodes is not mentioned, though it has rough sketches of a plant, asepal, petals, and staminodes without scale(Nekrassova 1927).
Parnassia kumaonica is hardly known inNepal. Hara (1955) mentioned several features
including the size of style (as 2 mm long) basedon the specimen from Thaple Himal (4600 m),
Central Nepal. Hara (1975) also reported thisspecies from Thudam, East Nepal, without note.
Polunin and Stainton (1984) and Stainton (1988)
did not mentioned this species. This species isnot known from Bhutan (Grierson 1987) andTibet (Gu & Hultgård 2001).
Parnassia kumaonica is distinguished from theresembling species as shown in the following
key.
Key to Parnassia kumaonica and the resembling species:
A. Petals dark green, staminodes undivided . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. tenella
A. Petals white, staminodes trilobed
B. Petals not distinctly larger than sepals(less than 1.5 times longer); base of petals
abruptly narrowed, claw-like, lamina obovate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. kumaonica

104Shinobu Akiyama and Mahendra N. Subedi

Fig. 1.

Parnassia kumaonica collected in Mustang (Miyamoto et al. 20230026, TI).

Notes on Parnassia kumaonica in Nepal

105

Fig. 2. Parnassia kumaonica. a: Sepal. b: Petals. c: Staminodes. d: Anther. a–d (F. Miyamoto et al. 20230026).
e: Petal (H. Kanai et al. 720654). f: Petal (H. Kanai et al. 720687). g: Petal (H. Kanai et al. 723252). All
10.

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Shinobu Akiyama and Mahendra N. Subedi

B. Petals distinctly larger than sepals (usually more than 2 times longer); base of
petals gradually narrowed, not claw-like
C. Petals narrowly obovate, erose on
margins throughout or in part, without
hairs at base . . . . . . . . . . . . P. pusilla
C. Petals obovate, fimbriate on margins
except at apex and base, usually witha few hairs at base (without hairs invar. ganeshii) . . . . . . . . . P. chinensis
We give an additional description of P. kumaonica with sketches of some floral ortgans.
Parnassia kumaonica Nekr. in Bull. Soc. Bot.
France, 74 (Ser. 5, 3): 646 (1927) [Syntypes:Duthie 5554 and 2898, LE, non vidi; Duthie
5554, BM-isosyn.]. Hara in Kihara (ed.), Fauna
and Flora of Nepal Himalaya: 142 (1955); inEnum. Flow. Pl. Nepal. 2: 156 (1979).
[Figs. 1 & 2]
Stems usually 1–3, 2–8(–13) cm tall, with 1leaf apically. Basal leaves 5–15, petiolate; petiole
7–9 cm long; blade ovate-cordate to cordate tosubreniform, 4–7 mm long, 3–5 mm wide, apex
rounded, base cordate, margin entire. Cauline
leaf sessile, semiampexicaul, similar to basal
ones but smaller. Flowers 6–8 mm across. Sepals
ovate, oblong, or widely obovate, and to widelyovate-triangular after flowering (basal partwidening), 3–5 mm long, 2–4 mm wide, apex
rounded to obtuse, margin entire, glabrous. Petals
white, 5–6 mm long, ca. 3 mm wide, base abruptly narrowed, claw-like (1–1.5 mm long); lamina
obovate, apex rounded to retuse, margin entire
and slightly erose basally, 3-veined. Anthers oblong, 0.6–1 mm long, connectives slightly projected or not; filaments ca. 3.5 mm long; staminodes flat, ca. 2.5 mm long, lamina ca. 1.2 mm
long and ca. 1.5 mm wide, trilobed. Ovary halfinferior, ovoid; style 1–2 mm long; stigma
trilobed. Capsule unknown.
Specimens examined. C Nepal. Dhawalagiri
Zone, Mustang District, Pongio Kharka, around
Sangda Pass, 4400 m (F. Miyamoto et al.
20230026, 11 Aug. 2002, TI, TNS); Dhem Kharka, on the west side slope of Hyujung Khola, ca.

10 km N. of Lo-Manthang, 4380–4600 m (Y.
Iokawa et al. 20310112, 4 July 2003, TI). E
Nepal. Janga La – Thudam, 4100 m (H. Kanai etal. 720654, 21 June 1972, TI); Thudam–LamaChungbu, 3800 m (H. Kanai et al. 720687, 23June 1972, TI); Lama Chungbu–Thudam (H.
Kanai et al. 723252, 24 June 1972, TI).
In this species the connectives of the anthers
have a tendency to slightly projected. In thegenus Parnassia the shape of the connectives ofthe anthers is one of the distinguishing characters. Parnassia delavayi, P. brevistyla, and P. leptophylla are characterized by the connectives
elongated into a long thick point above anthercells or apically projected into a lanceolate appendage (to 5 mm long) (Grierson 1987, Ku
1995, Gu & Hultgård 2001). But no species isknown with slightly projected connectives like P.
kumaonica.
Acknowledgement
We thank Drs. Yu Iokawa, Futoshi Miyamoto,Hiroshi Ikeda, Nobuhira Kurosaki, Mr. Yuji
Takahashi, and Ms. Machiko Tsusaka, who wereour collaborators on the field research. This study
was financially supported by the Midori-IkuseiZaidan Foundation and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) from the Japan Society for
Promotion of Science, no. 14255005 to Dr.
Hideaki Ohba. Our thanks are due to Dr. Yu
Iokawa to give us the photograph of the isosyntype specimen of P. kumaonica in BM.
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