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Premna vietnamensis, a distinct new species which is endemic to Gia Lai Province in Central Highlands of Vietnam, is described and illustrated. It is characterized by its calyx tube bearing a semi-globose fleshy appendage, which has not been reported before from all known congeneric taxa, as well as from the Lamiaceae. A phylogenetic analysis of the whole Lamiaceae based on a sampling including representatives from all 12 currently recognized subfamilies confirmed the placement of this new species within Premna of the Premnoideae. Morphologically and geographically, P. vietnamensis is most similar to P. stenobotrys, but differs significantly in many aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thorough understanding of biodiversity is a fundamental prerequisite for biological research. A lack of taxonomic knowledge and species misidentifications are particularly critical for conservation. Here we present an example of Potamogeton floridanus, the Florida Pondweed, an endangered taxon endemic to a small area in the Florida panhandle, whose taxonomic status remained controversial for more than a century, and all previous attempts to elucidate its identity have failed. We applied molecular approaches to tackle the origin of the mysterious taxon and supplemented them with morphological and anatomical investigations of both historical herbarium collections and plants recently collected in the type area for a comprehensive taxonomic reassessment. Sequencing of two nuclear ribosomal markers and one chloroplast non-coding spacer resulted in the surprising discovery that P. floridanus is a hybrid of P. pulcher and P. oakesianus, with the former being the maternal parent. The hybrid colony is currently geographically isolated from the distribution range of P. oakesianus. We show that previous molecular analyses have failed to reveal its hybrid identity due to inadequate nuclear DNA sequence editing. This is an example how the uncritical use of automized sequence reads can hamper molecular species identifications and also affect phylogenetic tree construction and interpretation. This unique hybrid taxon, P. ×floridanus, adds another case study to the debate on hybrid protection; consequences for its conservation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avena ventricosa Balansa ex Coss. is considered the C-genome donor of the cultivated hexaploid oat and is a ‘priority’ species for conservation, since it has limited geographic distribution and the only recorded populations in Europe are present in Cyprus. The current study attempts to characterize the genetic structure and fragmentation of the species via the application of genotypic markers. It was revealed that the genetic variety was mainly allocated among the populations collected, since clustering obtained was according to the geographic origin of the samples and the habitat. Species distribution modeling showed that the most important climatic variable defining A. ventricosa distribution is the mean diurnal temperature. Furthermore, significant association of the genetic structure to environmental variables was detected; overall, a negative association to precipitation was confirmed, while significant correlations of genetic structure and the temperature at the time of anthesis and germination were established. The safeguarding of this valuable genetic resource is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]