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Fragilaria vaucheriae is one of the most common Fragilaria species in Europe, typically reported from impacted, eutrophic water bodies. Despite its ubiquity, the species presents a broad morphological vari-ability, urging a complete taxonomic revision based on the analysis of the morphology of a substantial number of historic and recent populations. In the present study, type material of Exilaria vaucheriae, Fragilaria rinoi, and Echinella fasciculata 0 [var.] truncata was investigated using LM and SEM observations, together with more than 10 historic and recent populations. The results based on these comparisons show that Fragilaria vaucheriae is most likely a rather rare Fragilaria species in Europe and that most populations should be identified as Fragilaria truncata, a new combination made here based on Echinella fasciculata 0 truncata. The observations made in this study also resulted in the description of several new species, often with distinct ecologies and distributions: Fragilaria catenarinoi Van de Vijver et D.M.Williams sp. nov., F. kellyana Van de Vijver, D.M.Williams et Ector sp. nov., F. landnama Van de Vijver et Iris Hansen sp. nov., F. thingvellirensis Van de Vijver et G.S.Jonsson sp. nov., F. vandekerckhoveana Van de Vijver sp. nov., F. vaucheriaefalsa Van de Vijver et D.M.Williams sp. nov. and F. vaucheriaerobusta Van de Vijver, C.E.Wetzel et Ector sp. nov. Important features to discriminate the dif-ferent species include valve outline (linear versus lanceolate), the presence of `shoulders' beyond the apices, the presence of striae (and the formation of colonies), the stria density and the shape and structure of the central area. Using an analysis of the associated diatom flora, the ecological preferences of each taxon are briefly discussed.

This third paper revising the European Brachysira species deals with Brachysira serians and the closely related B. brebissonii-intermedia complex. The morphology of these species is characterised in greater detail than before based on a combination of analyses of original type material and additional historic and modern samples. All taxa in this complex are typically found in oligotrophic, acidic environments. The largest species in this complex are B. serians and B. wygaschii, which both possess a distinct Voigt discordance. Although they often co-occur, differences in their valve outline and dimensions are distinctive. The type material of Brachysira brebissonii is restudied and differs from a widespread use of this species name in Europe. As a result, Anomoeoneis intermedia, described from Denmark, is considered a more recent heterotypic synonym of B. brebissonii. Two new species are described to clarify the taxonomic identity of the B. brebissonii-intermedia species complex: B. elisabethiana Van de Vijver, C.E.Wetzel & Ector, sp. nov. and B. confusa Van de Vijver, R.L.Albert, B.Kennedy & Kusber, sp. nov. The type material of the morphologically similar B. arctoborealis from North America is studied for comparison. The ecological preferences of all the reported taxa are derived from the accompanying diatom flora in the investigated samples.

The taxonomic identity of several similar Brachysira species in Europe is investigated based on a combination of the analysis of original type material, additional historic samples, and modern samples. Brachysira microcephala and B. neoexilis can be separated based on morphological and ecological differences. Brachysira microcephala shows a lanceolate valve outline lacking convex margins but with protracted, rostrate to non-protracted, acutely rounded apices. The species prefers oligotrophic, acidic conditions. Brachysira neoexilis possesses lanceolate valves with rounded, convex margins and distinctly protracted, capitate to subcapitate apices, and typically occurs in oligotrophic lakes and rivers with a pH ranging from slighty acid to cleary alkaline. In addition, the type materials of B. liliana and B. neglectissima, two species showing some morphological similarities with the other two species were reexamined. Both taxa have a high stria density, with individual striae not resolvable in LM and prefer calcium-bicarbonate, oligotrophic, alkaline lakes. All species are illustrated with both LM and SEM observations. Their ecological preferences are derived from the accompanying diatom flora in the different investigated samples and the literature.

Eunotia paludosa is an abundant and frequent diatom species in ombrotrophic, Sphagnum-dominated bog ponds in Europe. Analysis of the type material from Mandling, Austria, revealed that our currently accepted concept of E. paludosa, based on morphology, was incorrect. The valves in the type population of E. paludosa possess distinct, relatively large, acute spines on the dorsal margin, which are not present in what is currently understood under E. paludosa. Based on the comparison with the E. paludosa type material, three new Eunotia species are described. Eunotia sphagnicola encompasses all European populations formerly and thus incorrectly identified as E. paludosa. The former E. paludosa populations in the sub-Antarctic region are described as E. insularum, a widespread species on almost all sub-Antarctic islands. Finally, E. zackenbergensis was described from Greenland. The three new species differ from each other in valve dimensions, valve outline and shape of the apices.

For a long time, the identity of Staurosirella lapponica, originally described as Fragilaria lapponica, was unclear as the original type material was never analysed in detail. Analysis of one of the samples used by Grunow to illustrate F. lapponica was investigated here by means of light and scanning electron microscopy. The observations allowed for a better morphological characterization of this species illustrating the ribbon-shaped colonies using bifurcated linking spines, its short striae on the valve face, and a reduced apical pore field. Additionally, a slide in the Cleve & M??ller exsiccatae, bearing the type population of Fragilaria mutabilis var. intercedens, was likewise investigated to determine a possible conspecificity with S. lapponica. Based on our observations, it is clear that both taxa are conspecific, with F. mutabilis var. intercedens being a more recent heterotypic synonym of S. lapponica. Staurosirella lapponica is compared with all other elliptic Staurosirella species. Only S. mutabilis shows some resemblance, but can be differentiated based on a higher stria density and larger apical pore field of the latter.

The former Synedra rumpens complex has long puzzled diatom taxonomists. In the nineteenth century, many infraspecific taxa were described as varieties or forms of S. rumpens. In the present study, type material of Synedra rumpens and several infraspecific taxa such as S. rumpens var. fragilarioides and S. familiaris f. parva and f. major was investigated using LM and SEM observations. For comparison, the original material of several other relevant diatom taxa (such as Fragilaria perdelicatissima, F. spinaspeciosa, Synedra campyla, S. vaucheriae var. distans) was also analysed. The results based on these comparisons show that all infraspecific taxa should be split from Fragilaria rumpens. Fragilaria campyla is a new combination within the genus Fragilaria with F. parva and S. (rumpens var.?) familiaris f. major as synonyms. Fragilaria scotica is likewise a new combina-tion in Fragilaria. Fragilaria metcalfeana is proposed as new name for Synedra familiaris var. neogena. The analysis of F. distans and F. fragilarioides confirmed their conspecificity, with F. fragilarioides having priority as name. Finally, two new species, F. pseudofamiliaris Van de Vijver, T.M.Schuster, Kusber et D.M.Williams sp. nov. and F. bahlsiana Van de Vijver, C.E.Wetzel et Ector sp. nov. are described. Using an analysis of the associated diatom flora, the ecological preferences of each taxon are briefly discussed.

Coriariaceae comprise only Coriaria , a genus of shrubs with nine species in Australasia (but excluding Australia), five in the Himalayas, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Japan, one in the Mediterranean, and one ranging from Patagonia to Mexico. The sister family, Corynocarpaceae, comprises five species of evergreen trees from New Guinea to New Zealand and Australia. This distribution has long fascinated biogeographers as potential support for Wegener's theory of continental drift, with alternative scenarios invoking either Antarctic or Beringian range expansions. Here, we present the discovery of pollen grains from Early Campanian (ca. 82 Mya) deposits in Antarctica, which we describe as Coriaripites goodii sp. nov., and newly generated nuclear and plastid molecular data for most of the family's species and its outgroup. This greatly expands the family's fossil record and is the so far oldest fossil of the order Cucurbitales. We used the phylogeny, new fossil, and an Oligocene flowering branch assigned to a small subclade of Coriaria to generate a chronogram and to study changes in chromosome number, deciduousness, and andromonoecy. Coriaria comprises a Northern (NH) and a Southern Hemisphere (SH) clade that diverged from each other in the Paleocene (ca. 57 Mya), with the SH clade reaching the New World once, through Antarctica, as supported by the fossil pollen. While the SH clade retained perfect flowers and evergreen leaves, the NH clade evolved andromonoecy and deciduousness. Polyploidy occurs in both clades and points to hybridization, matching weak species boundaries throughout the genus.

We assembled the plastome of the temperate, Southern Hemisphere liana Muehlenbeckia australis from high throughput sequencing data (paired-end Illumina reads) generated from total genomic DNA sequencing libraries. M. australis’ chloroplast genome sequence (GenBank: MG604297) is 163,484 bp in length and composed of long single copy (LSC; 88,166 bp) and short single copy (SSC; 13,486 bp) regions flanked by inverted repeats (IR; 30,916 bp each) typical for angiosperms. The plastome includes 131 genes comprising 83 protein-coding genes, 37 transfer RNA genes, eight ribosomal RNA genes, two possible pseudogenes, psbL and rpl23 with internal stop codons, and truncated repeats of ndhF and rps19 at IR boundaries.

This second paper on the revision of the taxonomic identity of several Brachysira species in Europe deals with Brachysira styriaca (Grunow) R.Ross and B. zellensis (Grunow) Round & D.G.Mann. Both species were described by Grunow based on material from Lake Erlauf (Lower Austria and Styria, Austria). Analysis of type material, additional historic and modern samples showed that most populations of B. styriaca from northern Europe belong to a different taxon. This was already described 70 years ago by Cleve-Euler as Anomoeoneis decipiens A.Cleve and is newly recombined here as Brachysira decipiens (A.Cleve) Van de Vijver & Kusber comb. nov. Brachysira decipiens and B. styriaca can be differentiated based on several morphological and distinct ecological preferences. Brachysira styriaca is typically found in calcium-bicarbonate, oligotrophic, alkaline lakes, whereas B. decipiens prefers acid environments. Brachysira rylandsiana Van de Vijver, D.M.Williams & Ector, sp. nov. is split from Brachysira zellensis based on the parallel valve margins, cuneately rounded apices, and several smaller, ultrastructural details. All species are illustrated with both LM and SEM observations. Their ecological preferences are derived from the accompanying diatom flora in the different investigated samples and the literature.

This study presents an analysis of plastomes to assess relationships among the seven genera of tribe Myoporeae (Scrophulariaceae). Sampling included individuals from type species for all seven genera included in Myoporeae (Bontia, Calamphoreus, Diocirea, Eremophila, Glycocystis, Myoporum, Pentacoelium), one additional species of the large genus Eremophila, one representative of the sister tribe Leucophylleae (Leucophyllum), and the previously published plastome of Scrophularia takesimensis as an outgroup. Phylogenetic analyses were performed using maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference analyses based on > 7000 variable nucleotide positions. Maximum parsimony analysis produced a single tree with the same topology as the Bayesian consensus tree, and all nodes were fully resolved with 100% bootstrap support and 1.0 Bayesian posterior probability. Tribe Myoporeae was supported as monophyletic and sister to Leucophylleae. Two lineages are identified within Myoporeae; one containing the Australian endemic genera Calamphoreus, Diocirea, Glycocystis and the type species of Eremophila (E. oppositifolia), the second containing species with distributions outside of Australia (Bontia, Myoporum, Pentacoelium) and a species of Eremophila (E. gibbifolia). Eremophila is thus supported as polyphyletic. The application of genome skimming and assembly of plastomes has resolved generic relationships in tribe Myoporeae and revealed variable regions of the genome that will be useful in further genetic study of the group.

The ability to rapidly generate and share molecular, visual, and acoustic data, and to compare them with existing information, and thereby to detect and name biological entities is fundamentally changing our understanding of evolutionary relationships among organisms and is also impacting taxonomy. Harnessing taxonomic data for rapid, automated species identification by machine learning tools or DNA metabarcoding techniques has great potential but will require their review, accessible storage, comprehensive comparison, and integration with prior knowledge and information. Currently, data production, management, and sharing in taxonomic studies are not keeping pace with these needs. Indeed, a survey of recent taxonomic publications provides evidence that few species descriptions in zoology and botany incorporate DNA sequence data. The use of modern high-throughput (-omics) data is so far the exception in alpha-taxonomy, although they are easily stored in GenBank and similar databases. By contrast, for the more routinely used image data, the problem is that they are rarely made available in openly accessible repositories. Improved sharing and re-using of both types of data requires institutions that maintain long-term data storage and capacity with workable, user-friendly but highly automated pipelines. Top priority should be given to standardization and pipeline development for the easy submission and storage of machine-readable data (e.g., images, audio files, videos, tables of measurements). The taxonomic community in Germany and the German Federation for Biological Data are researching options for a higher level of automation, improved linking among data submission and storage platforms, and for making existing taxonomic information more readily accessible.

The ongoing paradigm shift in taxonomy from individual contributions to a truly collaborative and forward-looking endeavour results in a number of challenges related to distributed data management. Examination of physical specimens remains a key task, but searching for specimen data, literature, and name information is now mostly done online. In the past, these research steps involved many physical visits to collections and libraries. Although these infrastructures were and are still freely accessible and supportive for research carried out by individuals, the amount of characters, specimens, and the complexity of current analytical approaches limit what can be achieved by individual workers. Monographing is challenged because: larger genera remain unstudied and become fragmented in regional treatments; long-term availability of detailed (unpublished) primary research data is often not addressed; cross-disciplinary interoperability and open data principles are needed; and highly specialised techniques used in phylogenetic and genomic analyses require teamwork by specialists. larger genera remain unstudied and become fragmented in regional treatments; long-term availability of detailed (unpublished) primary research data is often not addressed; cross-disciplinary interoperability and open data principles are needed; and highly specialised techniques used in phylogenetic and genomic analyses require teamwork by specialists. The process towards generating truly community-based integrative dynamic taxonomic treatments is ongoing. In botany, specialist communities and networks have formed for certain plant groups, for example in the families Solanaceae, Brassicaceae, Fabaceae, Poaceae, Melastomataceae-Miconieae, Asteraceae-Cichorieae, and in the order Caryophyllales. Their common aim is to create sustainable information systems according to the FAIR principles, making the information Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. At the same time, the information system is meant to support and document ongoing taxonomic research as an iterative process with tracking of changes, and backlinks to original data sources. This represents a big step forward with respect to the efficiency of the entire field of taxonomy. The Global Caryophyllales Initiative aims at creating a global synthesis of species diversity in this group (Borsch et al. 2015) encompassing about 12,500 species in more than 30 families or about 6% of flowering plants (Fig. 1). Caryophyllales include ecologically diverse, economically important, invasive, and threatened species. The Caryophyllales Network was initiated in 2011 and unites specialists from across the world (to date, 150 scientists from 37 countries). The network is recognized by the World Flora Online (WFO) Council as its Taxonomic Expert Network for Caryophyllales. Advances by the network are presented in the open-access Caryophyllales Portal (http://caryophyllales.org/), aiming to provide up-to-date phylogenetic and taxonomic information. The systematic treatment is powered by the EDIT Platform for Cybertaxonomy (https://cybertaxonomy.eu/), with the generic checklist (http://caryophyllales.org/Checklist) and some family treatments already publicly available (e.g. Cactaceae). The checklist is regularly updated in consultation with family editors. A species-level taxonomic backbone incorporating all names and pertinent nomenclatural acts and evaluations is being compiled. A compilation of the Nepenthaceae (Berendsohn et al. 2018) served as a case study for the accommodation of descriptive and other factual data, and for demonstrating the feasibility of the workflow contributing to the WFO initiative. The taxonomic treatment of Iresine (Borsch et al. 2018) is another example. These studies are fundamental in establishing a general workflow for collaborative online monographs. Several challenges remain, inter alia the genomics perspective in biodiversity informatics, proper attribution and unique identification of taxonomic concepts, review and impact assessment of individual contributions, possibilities to simultaneously display contrasting taxonomical concepts and classifications, and engaging both the wider taxonomic community and the public. The ongoing implementation shows that a dynamic online monograph requires rethinking of editorial workflows. Based on experiences with the Caryophyllales network, the taxonomic and biodiversity informatics communities are ready to meet this challenge.

Previous molecular phylogenetic analyses have resolved the Australian bloodwood eucalypt genus Corymbia (~100 species) as either monophyletic or paraphyletic with respect to Angophora (9-10 species). Here we assess relationships of Corymbia and Angophora using a large dataset of chloroplast DNA sequences (121,016 base pairs; from 90 accessions representing 55 Corymbia and 8 Angophora species, plus 33 accessions of related genera), skimmed from high throughput sequencing of genomic DNA, and compare results with new analyses of nuclear ITS sequences (119 accessions) from previous studies. Maximum likelihood and maximum parsimony analyses of cpDNA resolve well supported trees with most nodes having >95% bootstrap support. These trees strongly reject monophyly of Corymbia, its two subgenera (Corymbia and Blakella), most taxonomic sections (Abbreviatae, Maculatae, Naviculares, Septentrionales), and several species. ITS trees weakly indicate paraphyly of Corymbia (bootstrap support

The monophyly of Muehlenbeckia and evolutionary relationships with other genera in Polygonoideae have been unclear. The traditional placement of Muehlenbeckia in Coccolobeae (Eriogonoideae) along with Antigonon, Brunnichia, and Coccoloba has not been supported in previous studies, and it is more closely related to Fallopia in Polygonoideae. Molecular data from 22 species of Muehlenbeckia and from representatives of Atraphaxis, Fallopia (including Reynoutria), Polygonella, and Polygonum s.s. were generated from five chloroplast regions (matK, ndhF, 3′rps16-5′trnK, trnL-trnF 3′trnV-ndhC) and two nuclear gene regions (second intron of LEAFY, internal transcribed spacer). Analyses used maximum likelihood and maximum parsimony methods. Neither Fallopia or Muehlenbeckia is monophyletic, with most species of Muehlenbeckia related to Fallopia. Four clades are named as a result of this study: Duma, Fallopia, Muehlenbeckia, and Reynoutria. Duma contains three Australian species of Muehlenbeckia that form a ...

Few studies have addressed the evolutionary relationships within Polygonaceae from a global perspective. The convoluted taxonomic history of Polygonaceae is a major barrier to understanding evolution in this group, and only portions of it have been included in systematic treatments. Phylogenetic studies have been limited in both taxon sampling and amount of data. Our objective is to identify clades within Polygonaceae and to provide a global estimate of phylogenetic relationships in this morphologically diverse and geographically widespread group. We include a total of 75 species representing approximately 40 of the 55 named genera in the family. We use three chloroplast regions (rbcL, matK, and ndhF) and the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer to understand the phylogenetic relationships in Polygonaceae. Maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood are used to analyze the data. Symmeria is the sister group to remaining Polygonaceae sampled, and there is strong support for this placement. Afrobrunnichia bra...