''Aralia castanopsicola'',

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

''Pentapanax castanopsicola'', is a species of

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

in the family

Araliaceae The Araliaceae are a family of flowering plants composed of about 43 genera and around 1500 species consisting of primarily woody plants and some herbaceous plants commonly called the ginseng family. The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

. The specific epithet is spelt in various ways, including ''castanopsidicola''.

Taxonomy

The species was first described by

Bunzō Hayata was a Japanese botanist noted for his Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic work in Japan and Taiwan under Japanese rule, Japanese Taiwan. Early life Hayata was born to a devout Buddhist family in Kamo, Niigata on December 2, 1874. When he was 16, Haya ...

in 1915 in the genus ''Pentapanax''. The epithet has been spelt in various ways. Hayata spelt it ''castanopsisicola'', writing that it grew on the trunks of ''

Castanopsis ''Castanopsis'', commonly called chinquapin or chinkapin, is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the beech family, Fagaceae. The genus contains about 140 species, which are today restricted to tropical and subtropical eastern Asia. The Engli ...

''. The element ''-cola'' means 'dweller', so the epithet can be analysed as ''castanopsis-i-cola''. Article 60.10 of the

International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN or ICNafp) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all tho ...

requires such a construction to use the stem of the genitive of first element rather than the whole word before adding ''-icola''. Accordingly, the

International Plant Names Index The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...

and

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

have corrected Hayata's spelling to ''castanopsicola'', which uses the construction ''castanops-i-cola''. In botanical tradition, the genitive ending of words ending -''opsis'' has often been ''-opsidis'' (rather than the classically correct -''opseos'' wikt:ὄψις), so an alternative correction to Hayata's spelling is ''castanopsidicola'', as used in the ''Flora of China'' for example. In 1993,

Jun Wen Jun Wen (, Born December 27, 1963) is an evolutionary biologist and curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in the Department of Botany and has worked in the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics. She researches the monogr ...

transferred ''Pentapanax castanopsicola'' to ''

Aralia ''Aralia'' , or spikenard, is a genus of the family Araliaceae, consisting of 68 accepted species of deciduous or evergreen trees, shrubs, and rhizomatous herbaceous perennials. The genus is native to Asia and the Americas, with most species oc ...

'' on the basis of

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

evidence. Multiple studies since have confirmed that ''Pentapanax'' is nested within ''Aralia''.

References

Endemic flora of Taiwan castanopsicola Vulnerable plants Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN Plants described in 1915 {{Araliaceae-stub