Typification of the name Ranunculusrionii (Ranunculaceae).

Available information on the typification of the name Ranunculusrionii in the literature is scarce and misleading. Previously claimed type collections indicate Lagger as the collector, but the protologue discusses only the specimens collected by Rion. Original material for the name is identified, the locality of the type collection is specified, Lagger's way of writing herbarium labels for his type specimens is described, the history of the discovery of R.rionii is reviewed, and the name is lectotypified.

Evolutionary history and patterns of geographical variation, fertility, and hybridization in Stuckenia (Potamogetonaceae).

Aquatic plant species are often widespread, even across continents. They pose a challenge to species delimitation and taxonomy due to their reduced morphology and high phenotypic plasticity. These difficulties are even more pronounced in the case of interspecific hybridization. We investigate the aquatic plant genus Stuckenia for the first time on a worldwide scale. Expert species determination is aided by sequencing of nuclear ribosomal ITS and 5S-NTS regions and the plastid intergenic spacers rpl20-5'rps12 and trnT-trnL. Nuclear markers are used to infer hybridization, and the maternal origin of hybrids is addressed with plastid markers. Pure species are subjected to phylogenetic analyses. Two main Stuckenia lineages are found: one consists of S. amblyphylla, S. filiformis, S. pamirica, and S. vaginata, the other includes S. pectinata and S. striata. The widespread species S. pectinata, S. filiformis, and S. vaginata show intraspecific genetic variation, which is structured geographically. Many intraspecific hybrids, which are usually fertile, occur between those genotypes. Interspecific hybrids, which are consistently sterile, are detected among all widespread species; some are reported for the first time in several countries and regions. They originated multiple times from reciprocal crosses and reflect the geographical origins of parental genotypes. Intraspecific genetic variation can be higher than interspecific differences between closely related species. Comparison of phenotypic variation in the field and in cultivation with genotypic variation shows that numerous conspicuous forms have been overestimated taxonomically. These are resolved as phenotypes responding to unusual environments, have recurrently evolved adaptations, or represent extreme forms of continuous variation of the recognized species. However, some specific regional lineages, which have evolved from variable species, may be interpreted as early steps of the speciation process. Hybridization has been underestimated in some regions as a source of Stuckenia diversity, and the respective hybrid plants have been misidentified as intraspecific taxa or even as separate species. Many erroneous entries in sequence databases are detected and summarized. This work provides a sound basis for species delimitation and hybrid recognition in this difficult genus.

Pladias platform: Technical description of the database structure.

Background: Digitising and aggregating local floristic data is a critical step in the study of biodiversity. The integrative web-based platform Pladias, designed to cover a wide range of data on vascular plants, was recently developed in the Czech Republic. The combination of occurrence data with species characteristics opens many opportunities for data analysis and synthesis. New information: This article describes the relational structure of the Pladias database service (PladiasDB) and the context of the platform architecture. The structure is relatively complex, as our goal was to cover: (i) species occurrence records, including their management, validation and export of revised species distribution maps, (ii) data on species characteristics with quality control tools using defined data types and (iii) separate user interfaces (UI) for professionals and the general public. We discuss the approaches chosen to model individual elements in PladiasDB and summarise the experience gained during the first five years of operation of the Pladias platform.

The endangered Florida pondweed (Potamogeton floridanus) is a hybrid: Why we need to understand biodiversity thoroughly.

Thorough understanding of biodiversity is a fundamental prerequisite for biological research. A lack of taxonomic knowledge and species misidentifications are particularly critical for conservation. Here we present an example of Potamogeton floridanus, the Florida Pondweed, an endangered taxon endemic to a small area in the Florida panhandle, whose taxonomic status remained controversial for more than a century, and all previous attempts to elucidate its identity have failed. We applied molecular approaches to tackle the origin of the mysterious taxon and supplemented them with morphological and anatomical investigations of both historical herbarium collections and plants recently collected in the type area for a comprehensive taxonomic reassessment. Sequencing of two nuclear ribosomal markers and one chloroplast non-coding spacer resulted in the surprising discovery that P. floridanus is a hybrid of P. pulcher and P. oakesianus, with the former being the maternal parent. The hybrid colony is currently geographically isolated from the distribution range of P. oakesianus. We show that previous molecular analyses have failed to reveal its hybrid identity due to inadequate nuclear DNA sequence editing. This is an example how the uncritical use of automized sequence reads can hamper molecular species identifications and also affect phylogenetic tree construction and interpretation. This unique hybrid taxon, P. ×floridanus, adds another case study to the debate on hybrid protection; consequences for its conservation are discussed.

Genome size as a key to evolutionary complex aquatic plants: polyploidy and hybridization in Callitriche (Plantaginaceae).

Despite their complex evolutionary histories, aquatic plants are highly underrepresented in contemporary biosystematic studies. Of them, the genus Callitriche is particularly interesting because of such evolutionary features as wide variation in chromosome numbers and pollination systems. However, taxonomic difficulties have prevented broader investigation of this genus. In this study we applied flow cytometry to Callitriche for the first time in order to gain an insight into evolutionary processes and genome size differentiation in the genus. Flow cytometry complemented by confirmation of chromosome counts was applied to an extensive dataset of 1077 Callitriche individuals from 495 localities in 11 European countries and the USA. Genome size was determined for 12 taxa. The results suggest that many important processes have interacted in the evolution of the genus, including polyploidization and hybridization. Incongruence between genome size and ploidy level, intraspecific variation in genome size, formation of autotriploid and hybridization between species with different pollination systems were also detected. Hybridization takes place particularly in the diploid-tetraploid complex C. cophocarpa-C. platycarpa, for which the triploid hybrids were frequently recorded in the area of co-occurrence of its parents. A hitherto unknown hybrid (probably C. hamulata × C. cophocarpa) with a unique chromosome number was discovered in the Czech Republic. However, hybridization occurs very rarely among most of the studied species. The main ecological preferences were also compared among the taxa collected. Although Callitriche taxa often grow in mixed populations, the ecological preferences of individual species are distinctly different in some cases. Anyway, flow cytometry is a very efficient method for taxonomic delimitation, determination and investigation of Callitriche species, and is even able to distinguish homoploid taxa and identify introduced species.

Molecular evidence for a natural primary triple hybrid in plants revealed from direct sequencing.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Molecular evidence for natural primary hybrids composed of three different plant species is very rarely reported. An investigation was therefore carried out into the origin and a possible scenario for the rise of a sterile plant clone showing a combination of diagnostic morphological features of three separate, well-defined Potamogeton species. METHODS: The combination of sequences from maternally inherited cytoplasmic (rpl20-rps12) and biparentally inherited nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS) was used to identify the exact identity of the putative triple hybrid. KEY RESULTS: Direct sequencing showed ITS variants of three parental taxa, P. gramineus, P. lucens and P. perfoliatus, whereas chloroplast DNA identified P. perfoliatus as the female parent. A scenario for the rise of the triple hybrid through a fertile binary hybrid P. gramineus x P. lucens crossed with P. perfoliatus is described. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the triple hybrid is sterile, it possesses an efficient strategy for its existence and became locally successful even in the parental environment, perhaps as a result of heterosis. The population investigated is the only one known of this hybrid, P. x torssanderi, worldwide. Isozyme analysis indicated the colony to be genetically uniform. The plants studied represented a single clone that seems to have persisted at this site for a long time.