Taxonomy of Dianthus (Caryophyllaceae) - overall phylogenetic relationships and assessment of species diversity based on a first comprehensive checklist of the genus

Georgia Fassou; Nadja Korotkova; Anush Nersesyan; Marcus A Koch; Panayotis Dimopoulos; Thomas Borsch

doi:10.3897/phytokeys.196.77940

Taxonomy of Dianthus (Caryophyllaceae) - overall phylogenetic relationships and assessment of species diversity based on a first comprehensive checklist of the genus

PhytoKeys. 2022 May 23:196:91-214. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.196.77940. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Georgia Fassou¹, Nadja Korotkova², Anush Nersesyan³, Marcus A Koch⁴, Panayotis Dimopoulos¹, Thomas Borsch²

Affiliations

¹ University of Patras, School of Natural Sciences, Department of Biology, Division of Plant Biology, Laboratory of Botany, Patras, Achaia GR-26504, Greece University of Patras Patras Greece.
² Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Strasse 6-8, 14195 Berlin, Germany Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany.
³ A. Takhtajyan Institute of Botany, Armenian National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Acharyan st. 1, 0040 Yerevan, Armenia A. Takhtajyan Institute of Botany, Armenian National Academy of Sciences Yerevan Armenia.
⁴ Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) Heidelberg, Department of Biodiversity and Plant Systematics/Botanic Garden and Herbarium Heidelberg (HEID), University of Heidelberg Im Neuenheimer Feld 345, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany University of Heidelberg Heidelberg Germany.

Abstract

In this study, we present an overall phylogenetic framework for Dianthus using four plastid regions (matK-trnK-psbA, rpl32-trnL, trnQ-rps16) and nuclear ITS and a species-level checklist for the genus developed by using all available databases and the literature. The trees from the plastid dataset depict a clade of Dianthus that also includes Velezia and a few taxa of Petrorhagia. New combinations in Dianthus are provided for these species. The checklist of Dianthus in this new delimitation covers 1781 names, with 384 accepted species, 150 subspecies, 12 heterotypic varieties and two forms (not counting autonyms), 1050 synonyms, 22 hybrid names and 172 unresolved names, 3 names were excluded. Implications for the evolution of flower characters, life forms, biogeography, as well as sectional classification are discussed based on the phylogenetic framework.

Keywords: Caryophyllaceae; Caryophyllales; Caucasus; Dianthus; EDIT Platform for Cybertaxonomy; Greece; Petrorhagia; Velezia; World Flora Online; phylogeny; taxonomy.

Georgia Fassou, Nadja Korotkova, Anush Nersesyan, Marcus A. Koch, Panayotis Dimopoulos, Thomas Borsch.