Appearances Can Be Deceptive: Morphological, Phylogenetic, and Nomenclatural Delineation of Two Newly Named African Species Related to Frankenia pulverulenta (Frankeniaceae)
María Ángeles Alonso, Manuel B. Crespo, Jordi Abad-Brotons, Mario Martínez-Azorín, José Luis Villar

TL;DR
This paper describes two new African species of Frankenia, distinct from F. pulverulenta, using morphology and DNA data to correct past misidentifications.
Contribution
The paper introduces two new species, F. sahariensis and F. dinteri, based on integrative taxonomic and molecular evidence.
Findings
Molecular and morphological data show F. sahariensis and F. dinteri are distinct from F. pulverulenta.
Two new names are proposed to replace previously illegitimate species names.
Phylogenetic trees provide the most comprehensive understanding of Frankenia to date.
Abstract
Frankenia is a morphologically complex genus, with some species exhibiting a few diagnostic characters and significant morphological variability. This has led to misidentification or the synonymisation of many names based on one or a few diagnostic traits. This phenomenon affects the annual sea-heath, F. pulverulenta, a Eurasian–Mediterranean herb that has become subcosmopolitan, to which several entities have been included due to their shared features, namely their annual lifespan or their flattened leaves. However, this fact also extends to shrubby species, such as the Madeiran F. cespitosa. Here, integrative taxonomic studies, encompassing detailed morphological descriptions of macro- and microcharacters along with molecular phylogenetic analyses of both nuclear ribosomal (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region) and plastid (matK gene) DNA sequence data, and an analysis of biogeographic data were…
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
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Taxonomy
TopicsPlant Diversity and Evolution · Phytochemistry and Biological Activities · African Botany and Ecology Studies
