Cirsium hupingshanicum Z. C. Jin & Y. S. Chen, sp. nov. (Fig. 1)

Type:— China, Hunan, Shimen county, Hupingshan, growing on the roadside, alt. 350 m, 9 May 2021, Z. C. Jin HPS04 (holotype IBSC; isotypes IBSC, PE).

Herbs 120–180 cm, perennial. Stems simple, erect, branched above or unbranched, ribbed, unwinged, with long multicellular hairs. Leaves concolorous, green, with sparse multicellular hairs along veins or glabrous, surface smooth. Basal and lower cauline leaves with petiole to 5–10 cm; leaf blade elliptic to oblanceolate-elliptic, 20–30 × 6–10 cm, pinnatilobate, apex obtuse, base attenuate, adaxailly green, with sparse multicellular hairs, abaxially sparsely multicellular hairs especially along midvein; segments 9–12 pairs, semielliptic, with an apical 1–3 mm spine. Cauline leaves sessile, ± narrowly lanceolate, 15–40 × 3–5 cm, pinnately lobed or pinnatifid, apex acute, base auriculate semiamplexicaul; segments 4–6 pairs, elliptic to broadly triangular, toothed; teeth fringed with 1–2 mm spinules and with a ca. 4 mm apical spine, adaxailly green, with long multicellular hairs or glabrous, abaxially sparsely multicellular hairs especially along midvein; gradually smaller upward. Capitula sparsely racemose, nodding. Involucre campanulate, 2–3 cm in diam, 3–5 cm high, glabrous. Peduncles 10–15 cm, with long multicellular hairs and cobwebby. Phyllaries imbricate, in 6–8 rows, margin entire, lacking marginal spinules, wings, and scarious appendage, abaxially with a resinous gland; outer and middle phyllaries lanceolate, 5–13 × 3–3.5 mm, narrowed into a 1–2 mm spine; inner phyllaries lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 1.5–2 × 0.2–0.3 cm, apex acuminate and softly spiny. Florets bisexual. Corolla white, ca. 2.4 cm, tube ca. 1.2 cm, limb subequal to the length of tube, ca. 1.2 cm long, lobes 5, linear, ca. 4 mm long. Anther white, ca. 8 mm long including appendage. Achenes cylindric, laterally compressed, ca. 4 mm long, ca. 1.8–2 mm wide, smooth, indistinctly longitudinally ribbed, apical rim forming a crown. Pappus of 3–4 rows of plumose bristles, pale brown, ca. 2 cm long.

Phenology:—Flowering and fruiting from April to June.

Etymology:—The specific epithet ‘ hupingshanicum ’ is derived from the type locality, the Hupingshan Mountain, Shimen County, Hunan Province, China.

Distribution and habitat:— Cirsium hupingshanicum is currently only known from two localities (Fig. 3), one is its type locality: Shimen county, Hunan province, China. On the website of Chinese Field Herbarium (https://www. cfh.ac.cn/album/ShowPhoto.aspx?photoid=55ab405d-bbb9-430b-952e-1fb4e3990e2e), we also found a similar plant from Hefeng county, Hubei Province. These two localities are very close to each other. It is reasonable to infer that the population of Hefeng is most likely to belong to the same species as Hupingshan specimen. It occurs on the roadside at altitudes of about 350 m.

Discussion:—Because its phyllaries lack marginal spinules, wings, and scarious appendage and leaves abaxially lack spinules, the new species should belong to C. sect. Cirsium. Cirsium hupingshanicum is mostly similar to C. japonicum and C. racemiforme. The comparison of morphological characters between these three species are shown in Table 1.