S. georgievskyi Lazkov, Bot. Zhurn. (Moscow & Leningrad). 84 (9): 123. 1999.

Eggens, Frida, Jafari, Farzaneh, Thollesson, Mikael, Crameri, Simon, Zarre, Shahin & Oxelman, Bengt, 2020, Phylogeny and species delimitation in Silene sect. Arenosae (Caryophyllaceae): a new section, PhytoKeys 159, pp. 1-34 : 1

5. S. georgievskyi Lazkov, Bot. Zhurn. (Moscow & Leningrad). 84 (9): 123. 1999.

Type.

[Syria], Desertum Syriacum. 30 km ad austro-orient. Ab urb. Deir-Ez-Zor, vallis undulata, ass. Ephem.-car. Frequens, 15 May 1985, A. Georgievsky s.n. (Holotype: LE! [LE01051363]).

Description.

20.0-50.0 cm tall, erect. Stem pubescent in lower part, scabrous, pubescent with sessile glands in upper part; with 8-12 distinct internodes, the uppermost internode obviously longer than the next upper internode. Basal leaves linear or oblanceolate, pubescent. Cauline leaves linear 10.0-40.0 × 1.0-3.0 mm, pubescent. Calyx 25.0-30.0 mm long, ovoid at anthesis and clavate in fruit, pubescent; teeth unequal; shorter ones 2.0-4.0 mm, ovate, acuminate; longer ones 4.0-6.0 mm, lanceolate, acuminate; marginal hairs long (longer than 0.5 mm), dense. Inflorescence non-divaricate, branch axile (much) less than 90°. Petal claws 10.0-12.0 mm long, glabrous; limbs 7.0-9.0 mm long, bifid, upper-surface pink, lobes oblong, petal limbs cleft to middle or more; coronal scales 2.0-2.2 mm long. Anthophore 13.0-16.0 mm long, glabrous or puberulent. Anthers exserted; filaments 12.0-15.0 mm long, glabrous. Styles exserted. First pedicel 1.0-4.0 cm in flower, 2.0-6.0 cm in fruit, erect, glabrous, apex antrorse. Capsule 12.0 mm long, oblong or ellipsoid. Seeds 0.8-1.0 mm wide.

Distribution.

Syria, N Iraq (Fig. 7 ).

Notes.

At the molecular level, we have two sequences for each ITS and rps16 and only one for RPB2. All the three markers were sequenced for the specimen from Syria ( S. georgievskyi ID. 42), but for the specimen from Iraq, the ITS and rps16 regions were sequenced from two duplicate specimens from different herbaria. The two accessions of S. georgievskyi from Iraq and Syria do not form a monophyletic group in the species, ITS and rps16 trees (Figs 1 , 3 , 4 ). The accession from Iraq ( S. georgievskyi ID. 41) is found together with the accessions of S. chaetodonta in a moderately to strongly supported clades in the species (PP = 0.78, Fig. 1 ) and rps16 (PP = 1.00 MPB = 94% MLB = 96%, Fig. 4 ) trees, respectively. The accession from Syria is nested within a clade including S. microsperma in the species tree (Fig. 1 ) and weakly supported in rps16 tree (Fig. 4 , PP<0.75). In the ITS tree, the accessions of S. georgievskyi do not form a monophyletic group, but they are included in a strongly supported clade together with S. chaetodonta and S. striata (PP = 0.98 MPB = 86% MLB = 93%, Fig. 3 ). The morphological distinctiveness (much longer calyx, long anthophore and larger petals) speaks in favour of recognition of the species, and although chromosome numbers are unknown, we hypothesize that the incongruent pattern seen in the Syrian specimen may be explained by polyploid hybridization. Allopolyploids often grow larger than their parents ( Chen 2010). Silene georgievskyi is morphologically larger in floral and general habit aspects compared to both S. chaetodonta and S. microsperma . There may be a small overlap in the distributions of S. chaetodonta and S. georgievskyi , in the border area between Iraq and Syria.

Figures

Figure 1. Species tree from two STACEY runs and three unlinked regions (ITS, RPB 2, rps 16). Posterior probabilities> 0.75 are shown above branches. The number following the taxonomic name is the specimen ID (Suppl. material 1). Scale bar reflects the number of substitutions per site.

Figure 3. Phylogenetic tree resulting from Bayesian analysis of the ITS sequences including 76 taxa. The trees were summarized in a 50 % majority-rule consensus tree with the posterior probabilities (PP) indicated above branches. Bootstrap support values (> 75 %) based on MP and ML are noted below branches, respectively. The numbers following the taxonomic name indicate the specimen ID and Genbank numbers (Suppl. material 1), respectively.

Figure 4. Phylogenetic tree resulting from Bayesian analysis of the rps 16 sequences including 71 taxa. The trees were summarized in a 50 % majority-rule consensus tree with the posterior probabilities (PP) indicated above branches. Bootstrap support values (> 75 %) based on MP and ML are noted below branches, respectively. The numbers following the taxonomic name indicate the specimen ID and Genbank numbers (Suppl. material 1), respectively.

Figure 7. Distribution map of S. sect. Arenosae. Each color code corresponds to one taxon: A S. arenosa B S. austroiranica C S. chaetodonta D S. exsudans E S. georgievskyi F S. leyseroides G S. linearis H S. microsperma subsp. cypria I S. microsperma subsp. maritima J S. microsperma subsp. microsperma K S. microsperma subsp. modesta L S. striata.