Overall phylogenetic relationships of Scutellaria (Lamiaceae) shed light on the origin of the predominantly Caucasian and Irano-Turanian S. orientalis group

Scutellaria is one of the largest genera in the Lamiaceae with an estimated 400–500 species with a nearly worldwide distribution. Most species occur in the N hemisphere, with the Caucasus and the wider Irano-Turanian region housing a large number of taxa, many of them considered endemic. We present an overall phylogeny of the monophyletic genus Scutellaria based on rapidly evolving plastid regions (matK-trnK, rpl16, trnL-F). Three well-supported clades are evident, which render the currently accepted S. subg. Scutellaria paraphyletic to S. subg. Apeltanthus, which appears nested in “clade A”, in which the African S. schweinfurthii is sister to all remaining taxa, followed by other lineages of S. subg. Scutellaria. Ancestral states of 12 morphological characters frequently used as diagnostic from subgenus to species level were reconstructed with BayesTraits. The S. orientalis group appears as a major radiation in the Caucasus area and the Irano-Turanian region that may comprise up to a quarter of the species in the genus. This radiation corresponds to a monophyletically defined S. sect. Lupulinaria, characterized by decussate inflorescences and specialized (e.g. cucullate) bracts. Our phylogenetic data present significant resolution at the species level within the S. orientalis group, indicating complex geographically centred patterns of speciation in adaptation to steppe and high mountain habitats, including multiple evolution of pinnate and tomentose leaves. The detailed infrageneric classification of Juzepczuk (1951, 1954) mostly does not reflect natural groups

Mass Taxon-Sampling as a Strategy towards Illuminating the Natural History of Campanula (Campanuloideae)

Speciose clades usually harbor species with a broad spectrum of adaptive strategies and complex distribution patterns, and thus constitute ideal systems to disentangle biotic and abiotic causes underlying species diversification. The delimitation of such study systems to test evolutionary hypotheses is difficult because they often rely on artificial genus concepts as starting points. One of the most prominent examples is the bellflower genus Campanula with some 420 species, but up to 600 species when including all lineages to which Campanula is paraphyletic. We generated a large alignment of petD group II intron sequences to include more than 70% of described species as a reference. By comparison with partial data sets we could then assess the impact of selective taxon sampling strategies on phylogenetic reconstruction and subsequent evolutionary conclusions

Arabia lycia (Cruciferae), a new chasmophyte from the Taurus Mts, Turkey, and notes on related species. Willdenowia 30

Arabis (sect. Drabopsis) lycia is described as a species new to science and illustrated, and its taxonomic position close to A. bryoides of the S Balkans is discussed. SEM micrographs of the indumentum of A. lycia and its relatives (A. bryoides, A. carduchorum, A. drabiformis) are presented and their ecological requirements outlined. The new species is a subalpine cushion-forming plant of shaded vertical limestone rocks along the ridge of the Bakirli Da8i in the eastern part of the Western Taurus in Turkey. The chasmophytic habit and its stenochory suggests that A. lycia should be included in the list of relic endemics known from the mountains W of the Bay of Antalya