On the phylogenetic position and taxonomic value of Gagea trinervia (Viv.) Greuter and Gagea sect. Anthericoides A. Terracc. (Liliaceae)

Abstract

Gagea trinervia and G. graeca, both diploid (2n = 24), share several features that appear unusual in the genus: white flowers, relatively late flowering, and red bulb tunics. They are genetically rather close but can be distinguished with karyology and molecular markers (nrITS‐region). They were indeed thought to be conspecific by many authors, however, exhibit major ontogenetic, morphological and anatomical differences which indicates a strongly divergent evolution. Gagea trinervia differs from G. graeca in having bulbils with stolon‐like hypopodium, a regular sister bulbil at the immature stage, an unifacial, juvenile‐like basal leaf to adult stage, few cauline leaves, few flowers and a low level of sexual reproduction. These two species make up Gagea sect. Anthericoides, the most early‐branching clade of the genus, endemic to the Mediterranean. The closest species phylogenetically is Gagea serotina, that is referred to the separate section Lloydia (Salisb.) Peruzzi & al. comb. & stat. nov.

New insights into the phylogeny and taxonomy of Chinese species of Gagea (Liliaceae)—speciation through hybridization

“…Fistulosae within Sect. Didymobulbos suggested by Peruzzi et al (2008aPeruzzi et al ( , 2011 is in agreement with our opinion (except for Levichev) and supported by molecular results (Peterson et al 2008;Peruzzi et al 2008aPeruzzi et al , b, 2011.…”

“…Minimae) and speciation is in process, thus complicating the delimitation of species (see also discussion in Peterson et al 2009). Field studies, examining the morphology of fresh plants from all life stages together with molecular investigations are essential to detect hybrid taxa and to determine species borders (see also Peruzzi et al 2008aPeruzzi et al , 2011Peterson et al 2010).…”

“…The Sects. Minimae and Bulbiferae are also accepted by Peruzzi et al (2008aPeruzzi et al ( , 2011. In contrast, the inclusion of Sect.…”

“…We included sequences for all sections of Gagea, also using data from previous studies (Peterson et al 2004(Peterson et al , 2008. Tulipa cretica was used as outgroup (see Peterson et al 2008;Peruzzi et al 2008a). Three ITS sequences (Appendix 1) were from EMBL.…”

Clarifying the Nomenclature and Taxonomy of Gagea Kunawurensis (Royle) Greuter (Liliaceae) and Allied Taxa

“…and specific delimitation within genera based solely on morphological characters have been fraught with difficulty. Recent molecular work (Peterson et al, 2004(Peterson et al, , 2008Peruzzi et al, 2008aPeruzzi et al, , 2008bZarrei et al, 2009) has, perhaps unsurprisingly, shown that the distinctions between Gagea and Lloydia are artificial and that a single genus should be recognised. Gagea (Salisbury, 1806) being the earlier name, the species of Lloydia should all be transferred to it.…”