A nomenclatural treatment for Veronica subsect. Pentasepalae (Plantaginaceae sensu APG III) and typification of several names

Abstract

[EN] The large genus Veronica has a complex evolutionary history. Within it, Veronica subsect. Pentasepalae represents an ideal system to study important evolutionary processes, such as hybridization and polyploidization. Delimitation of species boundaries within the subsection is a difficult task and the highly complicated taxonomy of the group has led to an accumulation of approximately 230 names for 22 accepted taxa. Many names have been used in different taxonomic senses even in recent Floras, scientific works, catalogues, Red Lists and internet resources. The lack of an updated taxonomic and nomenclatural framework represents a significant problem to develop further studies in several fields such as ecology, conservation, plant and evolutionary biology. A complete nomenclatural treatment for the whole subsection is provided here, that relies on results derived from the first phylogenetic analysis of V. subsect. Pentasepalae based on DNA sequence data, morphology and ploidy‐ level information. Nomenclatural types for 22 validly published names are designated. In total 21 lectotypes, 2 epitypes and 1 neotype are chosen. A new combination, Veronica linearis, is proposed.