Chiritopsis jingxiensis, a New Species of Gesneriaceae from a Karst Cave in Guangxi, China

Chiritopsis W. T. Wang (Gesneriaceae) is endemic to China, where the genus consists of 10 species and three varieties. In the course of our floristic investigation of karst caves in Guangxi in 2005, the new species C. jingxiensis Yan Liu, W. B. Xu & H. S. Gao was discovered in a karst cave from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China, and the new taxon is described and illustrated here. This new species is similar to C. mollifolia D. Fang & W. T. Wang in its leaf shape, corolla, and staminodes, but it can be distinguished by its smaller leaves, the lax, 1-branched cymes with one to three flowers, and the capsule that is twice as long as the calyx.