Clematis huangjingensis (Ranunculaceae), a new synonym of the widely distributed Chinese species C. grandidentata

Based on a careful examination of herbarium specimens (including type material) and living plants in the wild, together with observations of the pubescence on branchlets, leaflet blades, petioles, peduncles and pedicels using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), we demonstrate that Clematis huangjingensis (Ranunculaceae), described from Gulin county in southeastern Sichuan, China, is indeed readily distinguishable from C. chingii by the pubescence on branchlets, petioles, leaflet blades, peduncles and pedicels, the inflorescence morphology and the geographical distribution, a species distributed in northern Guangdong, Guangxi, southern Guizhou, western Hunan and southeastern Yunnan, China, but not essentially different from C. grandidentata in any characters, a species widely distributed in the country (western Anhui, Chongqing, southern Gansu, Guizhou, southwestern Hebei, western Henan, Hubei, western Hunan, southern Ningxia, eastern Qinghai, southern Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, northeastern and northwestern Yunnan, northwestern Zhejiang). We therefore place C. huangjingensis in synonymy with C. grandidentata herein. We recognize two varieties under C. grandidentata, var. grandidentata with pubescent ovaries and achenes and var. likiangensis with glabrous ovaries and achenes.