Laggera Sch. Bip. ex Benth. & Hook. f., Gen. Pl.

Anderberg, Arne A. & Bengtson, Annika, 2022, Taxonomic novelties in the Asteraceae-Inuleae with the description of a new genus, Galgera separate from Laggera, Willdenowia 52 (3), pp. 373-386 : 378-382

Laggera Sch. Bip. ex Benth. & Hook. f., Gen. Pl. 2: 290. 1873. – Type (designated here): Laggera pterodonta (DC.) Sch. Bip. ex Oliv. in Trans. Linn. Soc. London 29: 94. 1873 ≡ Blumea pterodonta DC. in Wight, Contr. Bot. India: 16. 1834. – Lectotype (designated here): Peninsula Ind. orientalis, Wight 1437 (K K000974744).

states in L. decurrens . The reason L. decurrens has been placed with Laggera may have been its decurrent leaves and filiform female marginal florets, but neither of these character states is unique to Laggera ; they occur here and there in the Inuleae . Filiform female florets are found in, e.g., Blumea and winged stems in, e.g., Calostephane Benth. , Geigeria and Ondetia Benth. Given the present results, we conclude that L. decurrens cannot remain in Laggera , but also that it would be an odd addition to the small and morphologically homogeneous Antiphiona with its homogamous capitula, florets with purple corollas and non-decurrent, pinnatifid or bipinnatifid leaves. Therefore, we describe it here as a new genus.

This genus is a member of the Inuleae – Plucheinae related to, e.g., Nicolasia S. Moore and Doellia Sch. Bip. ex Walp. in the large “Plucheoid” clade mentioned above ( Nylinder & Anderberg 2015; Fig. 2). Laggera species ( Anderberg 1991) have winged stems or at least long decurrent leaf bases, florets with purple or pink corollas, and styles with obtuse sweeping-hairs extending below the bifurcation. Nylinder & Anderberg (2015) found that Laggera was polyphyletic as presently circumscribed because one of its species, viz. L. decurrens , belongs in a different clade within the subtribe. Apart from its distant relationships to other species of Laggera , L. decurrens also differs from them in morphology by having capitula with yellow corollas, tailed anthers with polarized endothecial tissue wall thickenings, and styles with acute sweeping-hairs ending above the bifurcation. It is here found as sister to Antiphiona close to the Geigeria – Ondetia and Calostephane – Pegolettia clades ( Fig. 2). In Nylinder & Anderberg (2015) the Geigeria – Ondetia pair is sister to Antiphiona – Laggera decurrens . Like Antiphiona , these were formerly members of the Inuleae – Inulinae . They have florets with yellow corollas (purple with yellow tips in Antiphiona ), styles with acute sweeping-hairs ending above the bifurcation (below in Geigeria Griess. ) and polarized endothecial tissue. In these respects, they correspond well with the character