An expanded molecular phylogeny of Plumbaginaceae, with emphasis on Limonium (sea lavenders): Taxonomic implications and biogeographic considerations

Abstract

Plumbaginaceae is characterized by a history of multiple taxonomic rearrangements and lacks a broad molecular phylogenetic framework. Limonium is the most species‐rich genus of the family with ca. 600 species and cosmopolitan distribution. Its center of diversity is the Mediterranean region, where ca. 70% of all Limonium species are endemic. In this study, we sample 201 Limonium species covering all described infrageneric entities and spanning its wide geographic range, along with 64 species of other Plumbaginaceae genera, representing 23 out of 29 genera of the family. Additionally, 20 species of the sister family Polygonaceae were used as outgroup. Sequences of three chloroplast (trnL‐F, matK, and rbcL) and one nuclear (ITS) loci were used to infer the molecular phylogeny employing maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses. According to our results, within Plumbaginoideae, Plumbago forms a non‐monophyletic assemblage, with Plumbago europaea sister to Plumbagella, while the other Plumbago species form a clade sister to Dyerophytum. Within Limonioideae, Ikonnikovia is nested in Goniolimon, rejecting its former segregation as genus distinct from Goniolimon. Limonium is divided into two major clades: Limonium subg. Pteroclados s.l., including L. sect. Pteroclados and L. anthericoides, and L. subg. Limonium. The latter is divided into three well‐supported subclades: the monospecific L. sect. Limoniodendron sister to a clade comprising a mostly non‐Mediterranean subclade and a Mediterranean subclade. Our results set the foundation for taxonomic proposals on sections and subsections of Limonium, namely: (a) the newly described L. sect. Tenuiramosum, created to assign L. anthericoides at the sectional rank; (b) the more restricted circumscriptions of L. sect. Limonium (= L. sect. Limonium subsect. Genuinae) and L. sect. Sarcophyllum (for the Sudano‐Zambezian/Saharo‐Arabian clade); (c) the more expanded circumscription of L. sect. Nephrophyllum (including species of the L. bellidifolium complex); and (d) the new combinations for L. sect. Pruinosum and L. sect. Pteroclados subsect. Odontolepideae and subsect. Nobiles.

Insights on Salt Tolerance of Two Endemic Limonium Species from Spain

“…Salt-affected habitats house plant species with particular adaptations to withstand the deleterious effects of high salt concentrations in the soil, which may include the synthesis of specific metabolites [1,2]. Only halophytes, or salt-tolerant species, belonging to different plant families, are well adapted to survive in saline ecosystems; a good example is the Plumbaginaceae family, which consists mainly of perennial shrubs, subshrubs, and herbs, most of them growing in arid and saline habitats [3,4]; some of these species, mainly belonging to the genera Limonium Mill., Limoniastrum Fabr. and Plumbago L., are used as ornamental and medicinal plants.…”

Limonium dagmarae (Plumbaginaceae), a new species from Namaqualand coast, South Africa

“…3). Another South African herbaceous species, L. anthericoides, (Schlechter 1897: 450) Dyer (1932: 155) was shown (Koutroumpa et al 2018) to be sister to the Macaronesian L. sect. Pteroclados (Boiss.)…”

The first bioactivity studies of Acantholimon lycopodioides from high altitude Karakoram-Himalayan desert

“…Plumbaginaceae is one of the top 20% of angiosperm species-rich diverse families, with a worldwide distribution, predominantly in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere ( Christenhusz and Byng, 2016 ). Of these, Limonium , Acantholimon and Armeria , all in subfamily Limonioideae, are the most species-rich genera comprising approximately 85–90% of all species in the family ( Koutroumpa et al, 2018 ). The main generic diversity of the family is centered in the mountains of Central Asia in the Irano-Turanian phytogeographic region ( Kubitzki et al, 1993 ), where many genera, including Acantholimon Boiss.…”