A monograph of Caprifoliaceae: Linnaeeae

• Published in: Kew Bulletin
• Main Authors: Landrein, Sven, Farjon, Aljos
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2019
• Subjects: nomenclature; morphometric analysis; horticulture; distribution maps; evolution; identification keys; conservation; Mak; Bering Land Bridge
• Online Access: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12225-018-9762-5

Tribe Linnaeeae is a diverse group disjunctly distributed in the northern hemisphere between China and Japan and Mexico. The tribe consists of shrubs with showy flowers that are important in the horticultural industry. We present a detailed monograph of tribe Linnaeeae that includes descriptions, identification keys, botanical plates with line drawings and photographs, distribution maps, morphometric analysis of key characters, and discussion on evolution, cultivation and conservation. Twenty species, as well as five new varieties and four new forms, are recognised in six genera. Forty heterotypic names (not including the 218 names for Linnaea borealis) are listed as synonyms. 1,973 specimens were studied and databased from 13 herbaria (A, BM, CAS, E, GZAC, IBSC, KUN, KYO, MAK, PE, TNS, TOFO and TI). The Kolkwitzia–Dipelta–Diabelia clade radiated from the Qinling Mountain Range of China and is disjunctly distributed in Japan. The Linnaea–Vesalea clade may have migrated through the Bering Land Bridge and radiated along the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico. Abelia, which is most diverse in China, evolved in relation to the formation of the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau.