假福王草 jia fu wang cao

Lactuca sororia Miquel, Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugduno-Batavi 2: 189. 1866; L. sororia f. glabra Y. Ling; L. sororia var. glabra Kitamura; L. sororia var. glandulosa Kitamura; L. sororia var. nudipes (Migo) Kitamura; L. sororia var. pilipes (Migo) Kitamura; L. thirionnii H. Léveillé; Mycelis sororia (Miquel) Nakai; M. sororia var. nudipes Migo; M. sororia var. pilipes Migo; Paraprenanthes hastata C. Shih; P. luchunensis C. Shih; P. pilipes (Migo) C. Shih; P. thirionnii (H. Léveillé) C. Shih.

Herbs 0.5-1.5[-1.8] m tall, perennial. Stem glabrous or more rarely glandular hairy. Basal leaves withered at anthesis. Lower and middle stem leaves with petiole 3-7 cm, unwinged; leaf blade undivided and triangular-ovate to lanceolate or ± lyrately pinnatifid to ± lyrately pinnatisect, glabrous, base cordate, truncate, or cuneate, margin ± sinuate and mucronulately dentate; lateral lobes 1 or 2(or 3) pairs, sometimes alternate or unpaired, ovate to irregularly rhombic, 1-11 × 1-7 cm, smaller toward leaf base, apex rounded to acute; terminal lobe broadly triangular to broadly lanceolate, 5.5-15 × 5.5-15 cm, base hastate, cordate, truncate, or cuneate, margin often coarsely sinuate, apex acute. Upper stem leaves sessile or with a shorter winged petiole, smaller, less or not divided. Synflorescence narrowly paniculiform, with many capitula. Capitula with usually 10-15 florets. Involucre 9-11 × ca. 3 mm. Outer phyllaries ovate to lanceolate, longest ca. 4 × 1 mm, apex acute; inner phyllaries ± 8, apex obtuse to rounded. Florets purplish. Achene 4-5 mm, attenuate into a ca. 1 mm beaklike apex. Pappus 7-8 mm. Fl. and fr. May-Aug. 2n = 18*.

Mountain slopes, thickets in mountain valleys, forests; 200-3200 m. Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, ?Guizhou, ?Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, ?Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, ?Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Vietnam].

Paraprenanthes sororia is the most widespread species of the genus and one of the two species distributed also outside China. Its circumscription and delimitation differ in the literature. Paraprenanthes pilipes and P. sylvicola have been considered either as specifically distinct or as conspecific, and Lactuca diversifolia (here treated as P. diversifolia) has been treated as a separate species and, more recently, as conspecific. This last species, however, clearly differs and is readily distinguished from P. sororia by its smaller capitula with only 5 inner phyllaries and 4-6 florets and by its endemic status in China. In contrast, P. sylvicola as treated in FRPS (80(1): 172. 1997), delimited by undivided leaves and glabrous upper stem portion, actually comprises plants (or specimens) with undivided leaves of both P. sororia and P. diversifolia. The type of the name P. sylvicola represents P. diversifolia. Glandular hairy plants, which occur throughout the distribution range of P. sororia, were formally described as a variety (Mycelis sororia var. pilipes) from Japan and later upvalued to species rank as P. pilipes. However, the co-occurrence of entirely glabrous and apically glandular hairy plants is also known from other species in subtribe Lactucinae and is of no taxonomic value. Paraprenanthes pilipes is therefore treated as synonymous with P. sororia. Paraprenanthes hastata, with conspicuous undivided lanceolate to lanceolate-hastate middle stem leaves and glandular hairy upper stem portion, which is only known from the incomplete type material collected in Chongqing on Jinyun Shan, is here considered merely as a depauperate form of P. sororia. Paraprenanthes luchunensis, finally, combines two different elements, and we follow X. Zhuang (Fl. Yunnan. 13: 741. 2004) who included that name in the sense of its type in P. sororia; other collections cited in the protologue represent P. polypodiifolia.