Gnaphalium tranzschelii Kirp. (Asteraceae): An unrecorded species from Korea

Gnaphalium L. is a small herbaceous genus comprising up to 80 species in worldwide (Asia, North to South America, Africa, and Oceania). This genus is highly polymorphic which embrace uncommon broad morphological boundary, and thus further studies were needed to proper taxonomic delimitations for the genus and its relatives. Gnaphalium uliginosum L. was usually found in moist sites such as margins of lake, pond, reservoir, stream banks and paddy field. This squat plant is solely known species in Korean Gnaphalium. During the revisionary study of the tribe Gnaphalieae (Asteraceae) in Korea, however, we found several materials in domestic herbaria (e.g., SNU, KWNU) that identified as G. uliginosum or Gamochaeta pensylvanica (Willd.) Cabrera collected from central to northern Korea, but clearly differ to the morphology of G. uliginosum. The external morphology of the materials is seemingly the only feature at odds with G. uliginosum. However, its morphological characters such as tall erected stems (ca. 30cm), hairs on seeds and whitish tomentose hairs on the whole plants are easily distinguished from G. uliginosum, and rather it looks like G. tranzschelii Kirp. Although the name G. tranzschelii have been treated as synonym of G. uliginosum by several authors, its distinct morphology might be sufficient to separate to two independent taxa. Generally, the morphological polymorphisms and hybridization of G. uliginosum complicate the taxonomy of the species, and thus further investigation for their habitat, distribution and morphology were needed to their taxonomic entity.