Taxonomy and relationships within polemonium foliosissimum (Polemoniaceae): Untangling a clade of colorful and gynodioecious herbs

New molecular and ecological data have necessitated taxonomic revisions of several species complexes within Polemonium (Polemoniaceae), including P. foliosissimum, an herbaceous perennial widespread in the Intermountain West of the United States. As currently circumscribed, P. foliosissimum is a highly polymorphic species of four taxonomic varieties. One of the most striking morphological traits of the species is its diversity in flower color, which is unusual for the genus. Several species have been proposed based on this variation in flower color. However, these names have been treated as infraspecific taxa because previous authors have concluded that the presence of micropollen grains throughout the geographic range of the species complex indicated partial hybrid sterility and therefore incomplete barriers to gene flow. However, recent evidence suggests that micropollen is instead due to a gynodioecious breeding system. Using 128 nuclear loci and eight quantitative morphological trai...新的分子与生态学研究数据，推动了花荵科（Polemoniaceae）花荵属（Polemonium）内多个物种复合体的分类学修订工作，其中包括作为多年生草本植物、广泛分布于美国山间西部的多叶花荵（P. foliosissimum）。就当前的分类界定而言，多叶花荵是一个高度多态的物种，下设4个分类变种。该物种最引人注目的形态特征之一是其花色多样性——这在花荵属中并不常见。此前已有学者基于这一花色变异提出了数个新物种，但这些名称均被处理为种下类群，原因是既往研究认为，在该物种复合体的整个地理分布范围内均存在微花粉粒，这一现象提示存在部分杂交不育，因此基因交流的屏障并不完全。然而，近期的研究证据表明，微花粉的产生实则源于雌全异株（gynodioecious）的繁育系统。本研究采用128个核基因位点与8个数量化形态性状……