Reconsideration of Taxonomy on Thalictrum minus from Okinawa

The Yanbaru area in the northern part of Okinawa Island is considered to be the only habitat of Thalictrum minus in the Ryukyu Archipelago and is listed as CR on the Okinawa Prefecture Red List due to its very limited distribution. However, this population is completely different from other populations in other regions in terms of its habitat and small size of plant parts, and thus, detailed studies have been needed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the morphology and ecology of this species with those of T. minus and other Thalictrum species on Okinawa Island and elsewhere and to elucidate its true nature by molecular phylogenetic analysis using nuclear ITS, cpDNA and nuclear SNPs obtained by MIG-seq method.