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A taxonomic revision of Leucothoë (Ericaceae; Tribe Gaultherieae)

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Abstract

Leucothoë is here defined as a genus of five species (L. axillaris, L. fontanesiana, L. griffithiana, L. keiskei, and L. davisiae), occurring in eastern Asia and western and eastern North America. Generic autapomorphies include autumn-formed inflorescences with meiosis occurring in the autumn. Members of the Leucothoë clade, which are evergreen, are sister to the deciduous Eubotryoides grayana, sharing the apomorphies of winged seeds with a distinctly protuberant hilum, the former of which is homoplasious. Leucothoë axillaris and L. fontanesiana, both of eastern North America, form a closely related species pair, as do the eastern Asian L. griffithiana and L. keiskei. Leucothoë davisiae, occurring in western North America, is likely sister to the remaining species, and it differs in having erect branches and inflorescences, minutely bullate capsules, and in the lack of awns on the anthers. Species descriptions, nomenclatural information, specimen citations, and eco-geographical characterizations for these five species are presented, along with an identification key.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the curators of A, AUA, BRIT, DUKE, FLAS, FSU, GA, LAF, LSU, MISS, MSC, MU, NEBC, NCSC, NCU, NLU, NY, ODU, ORE, PH, TENN, US, VDB, VSC, WILLI, and WTU for their loans of specimens, and Norris Williams and Kent Perkins of the University of Florida Herbarium and Amanda Neill and Tiana Rehman of the herbarium of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas for assistance with specimen processing. We thank Bruce Hansen for kindly making available digital images of all the USF specimens of Leucothoe axillaris. We also thank Ralph Thompson for his assistance in tracking down two specimens at BEREA, Steve Glenn (BKL) for specimen records of L. fontanesiana from New Jersey and New York; and Steve Young for information regarding the distribution of Leucothoe fontanesiana in New York. We appreciate Gretchen Ionta’s assistance with the distribution maps, and we value the helpful comments of Daniel Atha and an anonymous reviewer on an earlier version of this paper. NCM thanks the administrators of the Willard Sherman Turrell Herbarium Fund and the Miami University Graduate School Achievement Fund for their support, and this revision reflects, in part, work done as part of his doctoral dissertation. WSJ thanks his wife, Beverly, for assistance in field work in the eastern United States. Finally, KAK and WSJ acknowledge (and are grateful for) support from the National Science Foundation (grants: DEB-0717724, DEB-0717711), Wake Forest University, and the University of Florida.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Florida, 220 Bartram Hall, P.O. Box 118525, Gainesville, FL, 32611-8525, USA

    Walter S. Judd

  2. Central National Technology Support Center, USDA-NRCS, 501 W Felix St., FWFC, Building 23, Fort Worth, TX, 76115, USA

    Norman C. Melvin III

  3. Botanical Research Institute of Texas, 1700 University Drive, Fort Worth, TX, 76107, USA

    Norman C. Melvin III

  4. Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Dr, Box 1137, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Katherine Waselkov

  5. Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, 27109, USA

    Kathleen A. Kron

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  1. Walter S. Judd
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Judd, W.S., Melvin, N.C., Waselkov, K. et al. A taxonomic revision of Leucothoë (Ericaceae; Tribe Gaultherieae). Brittonia 65, 417–438 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12228-012-9295-4

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