Panarctic Flora

Browse

4212 Silene L.

GBIF

Notes: Elven and Petrovsky: Molecular-cladistic analyses of the genera of subfam. Silenoideae - summarized by Oxelman et al. (2001) - have confirmed some long-time suspicions. Lychnis and Silene as traditionally circumscribed are polyphyletic or paraphyletic. There is one major monophyletic Silene branch that includes most parts of traditional Silene and also the previous segregates of, e.g., Melandrium, Gastrolychnis, and the Lychnis sibirica group. Other branches are, according to these authors, best interpreted as smaller segregate genera. In an arctic context, this only concerns Viscaria with V. alpina. Two other proposed candidates are Lychnis s. str. with L. flos-cuculi which does not seem to be established anywhere in the Arctic, and Atocion with the northern A. rupestre (Silene rupestris) but which does not reach the Arctic.

Morton (2005c) did not accept this view and treated Silene collectively, also including Lychnis and Viscaria. Tzvelev (2001b, in comment) did the opposite and divided the Russian species of the main Silene and Lychnis-Viscaria branches in the treatment of Oxelman et al. on numerous genera, of which the following are relevant for the Arctic and neighboring parts (for publication data, see above): Steris (S. alpina = Viscaria alpina); Xamilenis (X. acaulis = Silene acaulis); Coccyganthe (C. flos-cuculi = Lychnis flos-cuculi); Sofianthe (the Lychnis sibirica group, i.e., Silene linnaeana, S. samojedora and S. villosula); Melandrium (M. dioicum = Silene dioica); Gastrolychnis (the Gastrolychnis group); Minjaevia (M. rupestris = Atocion rupestre); Silene s. str. (S. tatarica, S. paucifolia, S. repens); Oberna (O. behen = Silene vulgaris + S. uniflora); and Otites (O. polaris = Silene polaris).

We follow Oxelman et al. and include Melandrium, the Gastrolychnis (Physolychnidium) group, and the Lychnis sibirica group within one of the two major branches of Silene. This branch also includes, e.g., the Anotites group with S. menziesii and the Oberna group with S. vulgaris and S. uniflora. The other major branch contains, in an arctic context, one species: S. acaulis. These results are supported by morphology and conform to much previous supposition. The major changes were anticipated in pre-molecular studies of the Gastrolychnis group (e.g., Chowdhuri 1957; Bocquet 1969) and of the Lychnis sibirica group (e.g., Voroschilov in Skvortsov 1985). An additional result in support of a broad Silene is presented by Popp et al. (2005). These authors show, by a convincing molecular and phylogenetic analysis, that one of the two major lineages of the Gastrolychnis group results from at least two hybridization events between the other lineage of Gastrolychnis and the Silene linnaeana (Lychnis sibirica) lineage, i.e., between two of Tzvelev's genera.

Higher Taxa

Lower Taxa (Show all)