Pinellia koreana (Araceae), a New Species from Korea

The genus Pinellia Tenore( Araceae) consists of about 10 species restricted to warm temperatea and temperate East Asia (Mayo et al. 1997). All species are small plants, and some are popular as horticultural subjects. In Korea and China Pinellia is used for herbal medicine, particularly for chest complaints.
Taxonomic studies on the genus have concentrated on morphology(Li et al. 1977; Wu & Li, 1979; Li et al., 1997a) and cytological studies( Kurakubo, 1940; Ito, 1942; Suzuka, 1953; Jones. 1957; Marchant, 1972; Li et al., 1997b).  Pinellia in Korea was reported by Nakai( 1911), Chung et al. (1937) and Chung (1956) as consisting of a single species, Pinellia ternata (Thunberg) Breitenbach. Yang( 1958) reported that the genus Pinellia in Korea consisted of two taxa, Pinellia ternata and Pinellia ternata var. viridis Makino, but R ternata var. viridis was a synonym of P. ternata. Toh (1978) undertook a taxonomic study to investigate differences of morphological features anatomical structures and histochemical and cytological characteristics between R ternata and P. tripartita Schott, the latter not recorded from Korea. While studying the genus in Korea we found a population of Pinellia that does not belong to any taxon hitherto described.The plants grow along the Hwa-um valley of the southern slope of Mt. Chiri. The population of P. koreana in the type locality occupies a small area of ca. 100 m² and consists of about 25 individuals. We herein describe and illustrate this new species of Pinellia from Korea.