Combination of Sanger and target-enrichment markers resolves phylogenetic relationships and supports generic delimitation in the problematic ‘Urera clade’ of the nettle family (Urticaceae). UreraWells

Urera Gaudich, s.l. is a pantropical genus comprising c. 35 species of trees, shrubs, vines and herbs. The genus has a long history of taxonomic uncertainty, and has been repeatedly recovered as polyphyletic within a complex of genera in the Urticeae tribe of the nettle family (Urticaceae). In order to try to provide resolved generic delimitations concordant with evolutionary relationships, we applied a two-tier genome sampling approach where (i) a taxon-dense sample of Sanger sequence data from one nuclear and one chloroplast barcoding region was used to recover monophyletic clades of putative generic rank, and (ii) a genome-dense sample of target-enrichment data for a subset of representative species from each well-supported clade was used to resolve the backbone relationships among Urera and closely related genera. When combined with morphological and geographic data this approach provided a robust framework for generic delimitation in Urticaceae and a revised classification. The resulting resolved relationships suggest biome shifts, and trends in secondary woodiness, fleshy fruits and climbing habit, which warrant further investigation and underline the value of taxonomy concordant with evolutionary relationships. Our revised classification resurrects the genus name Scepocarpus Wedd. and proposes a new genus, Erura A.K.Monro & T. Wells. In addition, the new species epiphet Touchardia oahuensis T.Wells & A.K.Monro is offered as a replacement name for Touchardia glabra non H.St.John, and 33 new combinations are also provided.ADD DESCRIPTION