Premna bhamoensis (Lamiaceae, Premnoideae), a new species from Kachin State, northeastern Myanmar

Abstract. In the present study, we describe and illustrate a new species, Premna bhamoensis Y. T. Tan & B. Li (Lamiaceae), from Myanmar. In the 1980s, this species was transplanted from Bhamo County in northeastern Myanmar to the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The species shows striking morphological similarity to P. menglaensis B. Li, and thus, has been misidentified as the latter for a long period of time. However, morphological comparison revealed that P. bhamoensis is distinct from P. menglaensis in many aspects. Moreover, literature survey and specimen examinations also indicated that P. bhamoensis is undoubtedly different from all seven known congenetic species recorded from Kachin State, Myanmar, and a key for their identification has been provided in this paper.