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 Sanicula rugulosa can be distinguished from S. subgiraldii 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, S. astrantiifolia and S. hanyuanensis are not essentially different morphologically from S. rugulosa and we, therefore, propose to treat them as synonyms in this study.