Noccaea klimesii Al-Shehbaz 2022, sp. nov.

Noccaea klimesii Al-Shehbaz, sp. nov.

Diagnosis:— Noccaea klimesii differs from the other congeners in India, Pakistan, and neighboring countries by a combination of linear, falcate fruit 8–12 × 1.5–2 mm with undulate margin, short style exserted beyond the apical fruit notch, and dense, short, compact fruiting raceme.

Type: — NW INDIA, Jammu and Kashmir State, Ladakh, Zanskar, Ralakung to Phe [y], 3 August 2003, 33°47’N, 76°43’E, Leoš Klimeš 03-29-1 (holotype, MO-7010388). Figure 1.

Description: —Herbs perennial, glabrous throughout; caudex slender, branched, with few sterile rosettes. Stems 2–3 cm tall in fruit; branches simple, decumbent. Basal leaves rosulate; petiole 2–6 mm long, usually longer and 5–14 cm long is some sterile rosettes; blade ovate, obovate to oblanceolate or suborbicular, 2–7 × 2–4 mm, cuneate to attenuate at base, margin entire or obscurely 1- or 2-toothed, apex obtuse to rounded; cauline leaves 1–3, sessile, oblong to ovate, 3–6 × 1–4 mm, usually subappressed at base to stem, base minutely auriculate, margin entire, apex obtuse to subacute. Flowers not seen. Infructescence dense, compact, not or hardly elongated, 1–1.5 cm long, with 6–18 fruits; rachis straight; fruiting pedicels divaricate, 1.5–3.5 mm long, glabrous. Fruit falcate, linear, 8–12 × 1.5–2 mm, with distinct midvein, base cuneate, margin undulate, apex shallowly notched, apical notch 0.1–0.2 mm deep; style 0.25–0.4 mm long, exserted beyond apical notch. Seed and/or ovules 8–10 per fruit, oblong, smooth, light brown, 1–1.2 × 0.5–0.6 mm.

Phenology: —flowering likely in July; fruiting in August.

Distribution: —Endemic to India and known thus far only from the type collection.

Eponymy: — The species is named in honor of the Czech botanist Leoš Klimeš, 30 August 1960 (Hradec, Czech Republic)– August 2007 (Ladakh, India), a staff of the Institute of Botany of the Czech Republic in Třebonwho co-authored with M. Dvorskı and J. Doležal “A field guide to the flora of Ladakh” that was published in 2018, about 11 years after his tragic death while doing fieldwork in Ladakh.

Discussion: —As recognized by Al-Shehbaz (2015), there are six perennial Noccaea species in Jammu-Kashmir and other parts of India, Pakistan, and neighboring Tibet (China). From all of these, N. klimesii is easily distinguished by having linear, falcate fruits undulate at margin and densely compact racemes not or hardly elongated in fruit. It resembles N. cochlearioides (Hooker & Thomson 1861: 177) Al-Shehbaz (2002: 91) by the curved or contorted fruit with undulate margin, but differs by having linear (vs. oblong) fruit 1.5–2 (vs. 3–4) mm wide, 8–10 (vs. 3–5) seeds/ovules per fruit, and styles exserted from (vs. equal to) apical notch of fruit. It also resembles N. swatensis Meyer (2006: 178), a species with about the same ovules/seeds and the linear fruits similar in length and width, but these are straight and without undulate margin. The novelty further differs by having short, decumbent stems 2–3 (vs. erect and 5–10) cm tall, fruiting racemes 1–1.5 (vs. to 7) cm long, and somewhat shorter styles 0.23–0.4 (vs. 0.5–1) mm long.