Climacoptera, Botschantzev, 1956

Mosyakin, Sergei L. & Roalson, Eric H., 2017, New nomenclatural combinations in Pyankovia (Chenopodiaceae), Phytotaxa 319 (3), pp. 263-270 : 264

Climacoptera and its taxonomic recognition

The genus Climacoptera Botschantzev (1956: 111) was originally described as including 18 species that were earlier validated or treated in Salsola sensu lato. Newly described species were added later by Botschantzev (1971, one species), Botschantzev (1982, five species) and Pratov (1985, three species). Pratov (1986) recognized the taxa placed in Climacoptera by Botschantzev, described nine additional species, validated two sections in Climacoptera [previously invalidly (Art. 39.1 of ICN, McNeill et al. 2012) described as sections of Salsola by Iljin (1936)], and proposed three other sections and five subsections.

The genus Climacoptera was readily accepted mainly by authors from countries of the former USSR (e.g., Grubov 1966, Pratov 1972, 1986, Skripnik 1987, Lomonosova 1992, Tzvelev 1996, 2012, Mosyakin & Fedoronchuk 1999, Sukhorukov 2014, etc.) and in a few other publications (e.g., Kühn 1993). However, its status was differently recognized by other authors. It was often submerged in Salsola ( Freitag & Rilke 1997, Freitag 2001, Zhu et al. 2003, etc.), either for taxonomic or for pragmatic nomenclatural reasons. For example, the pragmatic considerations were among the main reasons of acceptance of Salsola (incl. Climacoptera ) in a wide circumscription in the Flora of China by Zhu et al. (2003: 402), who noted that “[r]ecent studies indicate that several widely recognized genera of Salsoleae (e.g., Girgensohnia , Halothamnus , Haloxylon , and Noaea Moquin-Tandon ) as well as many proposed segregate genera (e.g., Caroxylon Thunberg , Climacoptera Botschantzev , Darniella Maire & Weiller , Hypocylix Wołoszczak , Neocaspia Tzvelev , Nitrosalsola Tzvelev , and Xylosalsola Tzvelev ), are probably phylogenetically rooted in Salsola sensu latissimo . However, more research is needed for justification of any dramatic taxonomic changes in that group. Because of that, Salsola is accepted here in its traditional circumscription”.