Abstract Detail

Floristics & Taxonomy

Burwell, Remington [1], Ballard Jr, Harvey [1].

Preliminary integrative taxonomic investigations on the Affinis and Edulis species groups of Coastal Plain violets (Viola).

The Acaulescent Blue violets of Subsect. Boreali-Americanae represent the fourth largest lineage of Viola in the world. Four specialists have utilized widely divergent taxonomic approaches and emphasized different traits, yielding radically different classifications. Two informal assemblages of taxa, the Affinis and Edulis species groups, make up nearly all of the Acaulescent Blue Violet diversity on the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains, a region targeted for integrative taxonomic studies. In recent and ongoing investigations, our research group has successfully delimited taxa using a wealth of macromorphological features from spring chasmogamous flowering and summer cleistogamous fruiting plants collected in the field and grown in a common garden; scanning electron microscopic features of lateral petal trichomes and seed surfaces; analysis of soil traits to determine microhabitat differentiation; and tests of genetic differentiation based on several microsatellite loci. The Unified Species Concept has been used as an objective filter to detect and delineate evolutionary species, which will be formally recognized. To date, field studies, examinations of specimens (including types for all pertinent names) in several major herbaria, cultivation of living plants from populations and taxa of every relevant taxon, and limited scanning electron microscope observations of seed microsculpturing suggest the existence of four or more evolutionary species in the Affinis species group (V. floridana Brainerd, V. "impostor", V. langloisii Greene and V. rosacea Brainerd) and four or more evolutionary species in the Edulis group (V. chalcosperma Brainerd, V. edulis Spach, V. "edulis Gulf Coastal Plain" and V. langloisii var. pedatiloba Brainerd, the latter best raised to species rank). This preliminary report describes the species groups and the tentatively identified taxa to be used as hypotheses for further investigation. Future studies will include additional fieldwork to cover some geographic gaps; characterization of approximately 100 macro- and micromorphological traits on living plants and herbarium specimens; statistical tests on the morphological and other data sets; observations of reproductive behavior and fertility; analysis of microsatellite diversity and genetic differentiation; comparison of microhabitats through soil variables; and assessment of these various lines of evidence to delineate distinct evolutionary species deserving of formal taxonomic recognition.

1 - Ohio University, Department of Environmental & Plant Biology, 315 Porter Hall, Athens, OH, 45701, US

Keywords:
integrative taxonomy
Viola
Coastal Plain.

Presentation Type: Poster
Session: P, Floristics and Taxonomy
Location: Arizona Ballroom/Starr Pass
Date: Monday, July 29th, 2019
Time: 5:30 PM This poster will be presented at 5:30 pm. The Poster Session runs from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm. Posters with odd poster numbers are presented at 5:30 pm, and posters with even poster numbers are presented at 6:15 pm.
Number: PFT013
Abstract ID:945
Candidate for Awards:None