Advances in the study of the genus Nomocharis

The genus Nomocharis includes bulbous plants with high ornamental value. It is inextricably linked with the genera Lilium and Fritillaria in evolution. Nomocharis is distributed in the Hengduan Mountains of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, including high-altitude areas in Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet, China. Plants usually grow on the edge of forests or sunny alpine slopes. There are nine species in the genus, and, besides Nomocharis synaptica, the other eight species are distributed in China. Through intensive investigation on Nomocharis in recent years, a new species named Nomocharis gongshanensis has been discovered in Gongshan county of Yunnan province. The typical morphological characteristics of Nomocharis are as follows: widely opened perianth or perigonium and saucer-shaped flower; dark blotches in the bases of tepals, a series of thin tissue flanges standing erect and flabellately on both sides of the basal channel or nectaries of inner tepals, but not on outer tepals; fleshy, cylindrical or turbinate filaments with an awn top. Due to the narrow ecological adaptation and special regional distribution, the number of plants is scarce, and some species including Nomocharis basilissa, N. farreri and N. meleagrina are endangered. This paper summarizes the progress on taxonomy, cytology and reproduction, and prospects for future research in this genus.