Ceropegia is a genus of plants within the family Apocynaceae (commonly known as the dogbane family) and comprises more than 700 species. In China, 20 Ceropegia species have been recorded. Ceropegia sect. Chionopegia is mainly distributed in the Himalaya region, Pakistan and India eastwards to China. 

During a botanical exploration in the Luzhi River valley, Yimen County, Yunnan Province, southwest China, researchers from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences collected an unknown species of Ceropegia. After literature review as well as morphological examination, the researchers confirmed it as a species new to science.  

The new species was named as Ceropegia luzhiensis for the type locality, which lies within the Luzhi River valley. Results were published in Nordic Journal of Botany. 

Ceropegia luzhiensis is a perennial, twining herb, up to two meters long. It is morphologically similar to C. hookeri, but clearly differing by its longer peduncles, sparsely pilose pedicels, ovoid cages  about half the width of the inflated basal tube, corolla lobes narrowly triangular or lanceolate, slightly revolute, externally glabrous, inside densely white hairy and interstaminal corona lobes divided into pairs of linear teeth. 

The new species is currently known only from Xiaoluzhi Village, Luzhi Town, Yimen County, Yunnan Province, China, twinning around branches in the thickets of the dry-hot valley. 

"We surveyed comprehensively the Luzhi River valley for two weeks and found only one population of Ceropegia luzhiensis sporadically distributed in the dry-hot valley and growing around the thickets near Xiaoluzhi Village. The local villagers often graze their animals and cut firewood on the hillside, inevitably damaging to the habitat of this new species," said SHEN Jianyong of XTBG. 

The researchers therefore assessed the conservation status of the new species as 'Critically Endangered', according to the Red List Categories and Criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Ceropegia luzhiensis. (Image by SHEN Jianyong)

Ceropegia luzhiensis. (Image by SHEN Jianyong)

Ceropegia luzhiensis. (Image by SHEN Jianyong)

Ceropegia luzhiensis. (Image by SHEN Jianyong)

Ceropegia luzhiensis. (Image by SHEN Jianyong)

Ceropegia luzhiensis. (Image by SHEN Jianyong)