Recircumscription and revision of the genus Vanoverberghia (Zingiberaceae)

Abstract

The genus Vanoverberghia currently includes three species namely V. sepulchrei and V. rubrobracteata from the Philippines and V. sasakiana from Taiwan. New material targeting the Alpinia eubractea clade of the tribe Alpinieae was used to test the monophyly of Vanoverberghia. A combined analysis of the ITS and trnK/matK regions reveals that these three species form a strongly supported monophyletic clade with Alpinia diversifolia and Alpinia vanoverberghii. The morphological descriptions of all species were updated after examining recent collections and comparing with types and protologues. The original description of A. diversifolia did not include information on the flowers which are described here. The morphology of A. diversifolia and A. vanoverberghii is for most parts in accordance with the previous perception of the genus but a few characters are added and a recircumscription of Vanoverberghia is subsequently provided here. Vanoverberghia diversifolia is reinstated and A. vanoverberghii is combined in Vanoverberghia. Furthermore, collections from northern Luzon documents the presence of V. sasakiana and all species of Vanoverberghia thus occur in the Philippines. A key to the five species is provided including a comprehensive taxonomic revision and designation of three lectotypes.

Reinstatement and revision of the genus Adelmeria (Zingiberaceae) endemic to the Philippines

“…The ITS region yielded the highest number of parsimony‐informative characters with 32.93% (244 out of 741 bp), while the trnK/matK region obtained 9.54% (304 out of 3186 bp). These results are consistent with earlier reports for the tribe Alpinieae (e.g., Kress & al., ; de Boer & al., ; Docot & al., ).…”

“…The ML and BI majority‐rule consensus tree topologies are consistent to each other and with those obtained from previous studies (e.g., Kress & al., , ; de Boer & al., ; Docot & al., ). The six clades of Alpinia inside the tribe Alpinieae recognized in the latter papers are well represented here, and these clades are moderately to strongly supported with BS ranging from 70% to 100% and posterior probability (PP) values of 0.98–1.00 (Fig.…”

“…These newly generated sequences were then aligned using Mesquite v.3.04 (Maddison & Maddison, ) to the data matrix used by Docot & al. () (see Appendix 1 for complete accession details of the sequences). Species were selected to represent the six clades of Alpinia .…”

“…Therefore, species bearing these characters are usually dumped within Alpinia , making its circumscription broad (Smith, ; Kress & al., , ; Hlavatá, ). Recent investigations based on molecular data (e.g., Kress & al., , , ; Rangsiruji & al., ; Docot & al., ) identified six separate clades of Alpinia that were scattered throughout the tribe Alpinieae: (1) Alpinia carolinensis clade, (2) Alpinia eubractea clade, (3) Alpinia fax clade, (4) Alpinia galanga clade, (5) Alpinia rafflesiana clade, and (6) the Alpinia zerumbet clade. Based on these results, the latter papers suggested that Alpinia should be split into several genera reflecting the evolutionary history but the sampling of taxa should be expanded before final taxonomic decisions on circumscriptions can be made.…”

“…(, ) and Docot & al. () included only Alpinia pinetorum , which appeared within the Alpinia eubractea clade of the tribe Alpinieae. This clade is composed of three genera including the monotypic Leptosolena haenkei C.Presl of the Philippines, Vanoverberghia Merr.…”