Sonchella
Description
"Herbs, perennial, of ± saline habitats. Stem erect, ± leafy. Synflorescence narrowly racemiform or paniculiform. Capitula with ca. 10 florets. Involucre cylindric. Outer phyllaries imbricate, gradually longer centripetally with longest ca. 1/3 of inner ones, glabrous; inner phyllaries linear-lanceolate, equal in length, margin scarious. Receptacle naked. Florets yellow. Achene cylindric to fusiform, subcompressed, with 5 main ribs alternating with (1 or)2 slender secondary ribs, apex truncate. Pappus white, caducous."A
Systematics
Sonchella is a genus of two species distributed in E Central Asia (N China, Mongolia and E Russia), which unites Youngia stenoma, the single species of Y. sect. Stenophytum (Babcock & Stebbins 1937), nom. inval., and a second species formerly treated as Prenanthes angustifolia or Crepis pratensis, respectively. The two species are very similar to each other but differ in their synflorescence shape (Sennikov & Illarionova 2008; Shih & Kilian in Shih & al. 2011).
Sonchella has been confirmed in the molecular phylogenetic analyses of subtribe Crepidinae by J. W. Zhang & al. (in prep.) to be distant from Youngia. Instead it is nested in a clade including, among others, Dubyaea, Nabalus and Soroseris. A,B,C
Sonchella has been confirmed in the molecular phylogenetic analyses of subtribe Crepidinae by J. W. Zhang & al. (in prep.) to be distant from Youngia. Instead it is nested in a clade including, among others, Dubyaea, Nabalus and Soroseris. A,B,C
Chromosome numbers
Diploid, x = 8 for Sonchella stenoma. A more recent report of x = 5 for this species may be erroneous.D
Distribution
Asia-Temperate: Altay ‒ native; Buryatiya ‒ native; China North-Central (Gansu ‒ native); Chita ‒ native; Inner Mongolia (Nei Mongol ‒ native); Mongolia ‒ native; Qinghai ‒ native; Tibet ‒ reported in error; Tuva ‒ native