Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Spergularia hanoverensis (Caryophyllaceae): Validation and Re-Circumscription of a Misinterpreted Species From South Africa

Version 1 : Received: 23 May 2023 / Approved: 24 May 2023 / Online: 24 May 2023 (05:20:49 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Alonso, M.Á.; Crespo, M.B.; Martínez-Azorín, M.; Mucina, L. Spergularia hanoverensis (Caryophyllaceae): Validation and Recircumscription of a Misinterpreted Species from South Africa. Plants 2023, 12, 2481. Alonso, M.Á.; Crespo, M.B.; Martínez-Azorín, M.; Mucina, L. Spergularia hanoverensis (Caryophyllaceae): Validation and Recircumscription of a Misinterpreted Species from South Africa. Plants 2023, 12, 2481.

Abstract

The name “Spergularia hanoverensis Simon” has been misapplied for an endemic taxon confined to inland semi-desert ecosystems in central-western South Africa. It is commonly accepted to be a small annual species occurring in saline habitats in a wide elevation range, but its real identity still remains obscure. In the context of a taxonomic and phylogenetic research on the African species of Spergularia, we found that the name apparently was never validly published still. After revision of herbarium material housed in the South African herbaria, a voucher collected from Hanover was found at PRE bearing some labels handwritten by E. Simon that suggest it might be an intended type for the name. Additional herbarium material and wild populations from Karoo region were identified that matched the samples in that voucher, and taxonomic research was conducted to clarify their identity. Those Karoo plants show a woody dense compact habit, woody perennial at base; stems prostrate to ascendent; leaves entirely glabrous, somewhat glaucous; with large white-hyaline conspicuous stipules; inflorescence glanduliferous, many-flowered subdichasial cyme, with minute bracts; flowers small, with white petals about equalling sepals, stamens 78, and styles free from base; capsule small, with seeds dimorphic, unwinged to broadly winged, with testa always densely tuberculate, among other characters. Molecular analyses of plastid (trnL-trnF region) and nuclear ribosomal (5.8S-ITS2 region) DNA sequence data support morphological differentiation of the Karoo plants, for which the name S. hanoverensis is here effectively published. A full morphological description, as well as data on ecology, habitat, distribution, and taxonomic and phylogenetic relationships of S. hanoverensis are compared to other members of the “South African group”, namely S. glandulosa. S. namaquensis, and S. quartzicola, from which the new species considerably differs. Adaptative significance of dimorphic seeds of S. hanoverensis is briefly commented in context to habitat preference of the species. An identification key is presented for the South African related taxa.

Keywords

ITS phylogeny; plant endemics; plant morphology; South African flora; Spergularia; Sperguleae; taxonomy; trnL-trnF phylogeny.

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

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