Background: Artemisia in East Asia includes a number of economically important taxa that are widely used for food, medicinal, and ornamental purposes. The identification of taxa, however, has been hampered by insufficient diagnostic morphological characteristics and frequent natural hybridization. Development of novel DNA markers or barcodes with sufficient resolution to resolve taxonomic issues of Artemisia in East Asia is significant challenge. Results: To establish a molecular basis for taxonomic identification and comparative phylogenomic analysis of Artemisia, we newly determined 19 chloroplast genome (plastome) sequences of 18 Artemisia taxa in East Asia, de novo-assembled and annotated the plastomes of two taxa using publicly available Illumina reads, and compared them with 11 Artemisia plastomes reported previously. The plastomes of Artemisia were 150,858-151,318 base pairs (bp) in length and harbored 87 protein-coding genes, 37 transfer RNAs, and 8 ribosomal RNA genes in conserved order and orientation. Evolutionary analyses of whole plastomes and 80 non-redundant protein-coding genes revealed that the noncoding trnH-psbA spacer was highly variable in size and nucleotide sequence both between and within taxa, whereas the coding sequences of accD and ycf1 were under weak positive selection and relaxed selective constraints, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis of the whole plastomes based on maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses yielded five groups of Artemisia plastomes clustered in the monophyletic subgenus Dracunculus and paraphyletic subgenus Artemisia, suggesting that the whole plastomes can be used as molecular markers to infer the chloroplast haplotypes of Artemisia taxa. Additionally, analysis of accD and ycf1 hotspots enabled the development of novel markers potentially applicable across the family Asteraceae with high discriminatory power. Conclusions: The complete sequences of the Artemisia plastomes are sufficiently polymorphic to be used as superbarcodes for this genus. It will facilitate the development of new molecular markers and study of the phylogenomic relationships of Artemisia species in the family Asteraceae.

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Floristic study and conservation management strategies of algific talus slopes on the Korean peninsula 227 Taxa / Collection numbers Collection Sites *

Earlier taxonomic studies of Korean Scutellaria reported a new record of Scutellaria hastifolia L. in Korea based on three herbarium sheets. During a reexamination of these specimens, we found that the leaf characters of these specimens differ from those in the type specimen of S. hastifolia. Based on a literature survey and confirmation of the type specimen, the specimens identified as S. hastifolia thus far were a misidentification of S. barbata D. Don. S. hastifolia is clearly different from S. barbata by single conspicuous teeth on both sides of the leaf margins and larger leaves. In addition to the distribution sites of the three specimens used in the previous study, a distribution site of the S. barbata was newly found in the southern part of Korea. In this study, we report a new distribution of S. barbata in Korea, correct a previous report of S. hastifolia, describe the morphological characters of S. barbata, and suggest a taxonomic key to Korean Scutellaria including S. barbata.

Background In 2020, a categorized list of wetland preferences, major habitats, and life forms of 4145 vascular plant taxa occurring in the Korean Peninsula was published by the National Institute of Biological Resources. We analyzed the list and explored the distribution patterns of the five categorized groups according to wetland preference, along with the information on the major habitats and the life forms of the plants belonging to those categories. Results Out of 4145 taxa, we found that 729 wetland plant taxa (18%) occur in Korea: 401 obligate wetland plants and 328 facultative wetland plants. Among the 729 wetland taxa, the majority (73%) was hygrophytes and the remaining 27% was aquatic macrophytes. Furthermore, almost all of the wetland taxa are herbs; so, woody plants are only 4.7%. The 16 carnivorous taxa distributed in Korea were characterized as obligate wetland plants. Conclusions We expect the categorized information would promote understanding of the characteristics of the plant species and would be an important source for understanding, conservation, and restoration of wetland ecosystems.