Taxonomic studies on the genus Sanicula (Apiaceae) from China (IV): Clarification of morphology and distribution of S. rugulosa and S. subgiraldii, with reduction of S. astrantiifolia to a synonym of the former

Through field observations of living plants and the analysis of herbarium collections, including type material, it is demonstrated that <i>Sanicula rugulosa</i> can be distinguished from <i>S. subgiraldii</i> by several morphological characteristics, including the presence of slightly tripartite basal leaves (vs. deeply ternate leaves), umbellules that typically contain 5-7 flowers (vs. 4-11), 3-8 staminate flowers (vs. 2-3), generally three fertile flowers (vs. 1-3) and a consistently black stylopodium (vs. a whitish or pale green one). Furthermore, <i>S. astrantiifolia</i> and <i>S. hanyuanensis</i> are not essentially different morphologically from <i>S. rugulosa</i> and we, therefore, propose to treat them as synonyms in this study.