Systematics of the plumeweeds: The genus Carminatia (Eupatorieae, Asteraceae)

The genus Carminatia, which occurs from the southwestern United States to Central America, comprises annuals with cordate to broadly ovate leaves, paniculiform capitulescences that are often spike-like or narrowly raceme-like and with mostly fasciculate capitula, and a pappus of plumose bristles. We used nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS and ETS) and the plastid psbA-trnH spacer DNA sequences to estimate phylogenetic relationships among the species of Carminatia, which have not been fully investigated using molecular data to date. All of our analyses supported the monophyly of the genus and most of them supported Brickelliastrum as sister to Carminatia. The analyses also supported the recognition of a new species, C. balsana, which is confined to the Balsas Basin in Mexico. The new species is more similar to C. recondita but has shorter capitula, corollas, and cypselae, and the capitula are oriented to more than one side of the capitulescence. An updated taxonomic revision of the genus, includ..., Field work was conducted in Mexico to study the morphology of the species. Pictures were taken and fresh leaves were collected and immediately dried in silica gel. Voucher specimens were collected and deposited in the National Herbarium of Mexico. Duplicates and leaf samples were imported to UC Davis with valid permits. Duplicates were deposited at the UC Davis herbarium. In the laboratory, leaf samples were ground and 5–20 mg of dry leaf tissue was used for DNA extractions using the DNeasy Plant Kits (Qiagen, Valencia, California), following the manufacturer’s protocols with minor modifications. The concentration of DNA samples was measured with a spectrophotometer. Graphs of UV absorbance and the ratio of absorbance values (A260/A280) were also checked to determine the purity of the extracted DNA. 
Taq PCR Core Kits (Qiagen, Valencia, California) in conjunction with Taq DNA polymerase from Thermo Fisher Scientific were used to amplify target genomic regions. The ITS region was amplifi...,