Taxonomic Status of the Far Eastern Cattail Typha japonica Miq. (T. sect. Ebracteolatae) in the Context of Its First Record in Russia.

Japanese cattail (Typha japonica Miq., section Ebracteolatae) has been restored to its valid taxonomic status and listed as one of the floras of the outmost southern Sakhalin and Kuril Islands for the first time. These are the first records of T. japonica in Russia. With the unique geography and current molecular data (rpl32-trnL intergenic spacer), the latter cattail's combination of morphological characters clearly distinguishes it from all other species of sect. Ebracteolatae (including T. caspica Pobed., T. elata Boreau, and T. tzvelevii Mavrodiev), and also from all currently known bract-less species of Typha, including the Eastern cattail (T. orientalis C.Presl.), with which T. japonica was arbitrarily synonymized previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]