A new Quao species was discovered in Vung Tau

In the research program on plant diversity in the Southern region to collect additional specimens for the Vietnam Museum of Nature, scientists from the Institute of Tropical Biology under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology present and describe a new plant species belonging to the Bignoniaceae family in Binh Chau-Phuoc Buu Nature Reserve, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.

A new species of Quao has been discovered in Vung Tau

This new species is named Quao binh Chau , Stereospermum binhchauensis VS Dang.

Stereospermum genus has about 20 species distributed from Africa, Madagascar to Southeast Asia. In Vietnam, there are 6 species including this new species, and this is also the additional discovery for Quao (Bignoniaceae) in Indochina after more than 30 years since the publication of Santisuk & Vidal (1985).

Stereospermum binhchauensis VS Dang identification, Stereospermum binhchauensis VS Dang

The new species Stereospermum binhchauensis VS Dang is characterized by large trees, 10–18 m tall; young branches with feathers. Double feathered leaves once; oval or oval leaflets, 8–18 x 5–7.5 cm in size, unbalanced round base, pointed tip, original cover, with hard hairs on both sides. Inflorescences in the shape of a needle, growing at the tip of the branch; radio shaped bell, 0.8-1.2 cm long, with feathers, with 5 triangular lobes; violet yellow, 4–5 cm long, hairy, in the form of narrow cylinders, broad above bell-shaped, slightly curved, knurled; stamen 4, two pairs of staggered, gold above, 1.5-2 cm long. The fruit is cylindrical, slender, curled down, size 60–80 x 0.5–1 cm, with 4 low sides, many white on the pod; large seeds, milky colors, size 2–3 x 0.5–0.8 cm including wings.

This new species was published in the journal Acta phytotaxonomica et geobotanica, volume 66, No. 2, page 91-94, 2015.