In a new taxonomic account of Ranunculus section Batrachium 30 species are recognized. We present a key to the species based on morphological characters of diagnostic value. Taxonomic descriptions including information on chromosome counts, geographic range and ecological preferences are provided. For all species synonyms are listed, allowing access to the relevant taxonomic and floristic literature including taxonomic databases worldwide. Information on types and type localities is provided wherever possible. Reported and confirmed hybrids are listed and assigned to their putative parental species. Infraspecific categories such as subspecies and varieties are not recognized. Unresolved taxonomic problems are discussed for each species and for the section as a whole.

Hybridization between alien and native species is biologically very important and could lead to genetic erosion of native taxa. Solidago 9 niederederi was discovered over a century ago in Austria and described by Khek as a natural hybrid between the alien (nowadays regarded also as invasive) S. canadensis and native S. virgaurea. Although interspecific hybridization in the genus Solidago is considered to be relatively common, hybrid nature of S. 9 niederederi has not been independently proven using molecular tools, to date. Because proper identification of the parentage for the hybrid Solidago individuals solely based on morphological features can be misleading, in this paper we report an additive polymorphism pattern expressed in the ITS sequences obtained from individuals representing S. 9 niederederi, and confirm the previous hypothesis that the parental species of this hybrid are S. canadensis and S. virgaurea. Additionally, based on variability at the cpDNA rpl32-trnL locus, we showed that in natural populations hybridization occurs in both directions.

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Although the Balkan Peninsula belongs to the main European biodiversity centres, phylogeographical structure of its high‐mountain flora and relationships with adjoining mountain systems remain almost unknown. Here, we analyse the evolutionary patterns in Campanula alpina s.l., which comprises C. alpina Jacq. (eastern Alps, Carpathians) and the mostly neglected, allopatric Balkan taxon C. orbelica Pančić. Using a range‐wide sampling, two molecular marker systems (mostly nuclear AFLPs and chloroplast DNA sequences), flow cytometry and morphometric assessment, we (1) test earlier hypotheses assuming the impact of the Balkan lineages on the history of populations in the Alps and the Carpathians; (2) elucidate the long‐lasting controversy concerning the taxonomic status of the populations in the Balkan Peninsula. The primary evolutionary break, evidenced by a substantial genetic differentiation, separated the Alpine/Carpathian and Balkan populations. Thus, the previously hypothesized influence of the Balkan gene pool on the present more northerly lineages (especially on a distinct phylogeographical group occurring in the southwestern Carpathians) was rejected. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of cpDNA may support the Carpathians as the ancestral area within C. alpina from which the species reached the Alps, although strongly divergent AFLPs point at a relatively ancient time of this colonization. Molecular data and clear morphological segregation supported C. orbelica as a Balkan endemic species evolutionarily divergent from C. alpina. Both taxa are lectotypified, illustrated and morphologically characterized; their diagnostic characters are outlined.

In the first half of 19th century Jan Fryderyk Wolfgang (1775–1859) was the outstanding expert on Potamogetonaceae. Twelve of the names he proposed in a manuscript of a monograph on Potamogeton were validly published by Schultes & Schultes (1827). Of these, four names are now the correct names for the respective taxa, one for a species (P. rutilus Wolfg.) and three for hybrids (P. ×nerviger Wolfg., P. ×salicifolius Wolfg. and P. ×undulatus Wolfg.). Ten names of Potamogeton taxa described by Wolfgang are typified in this paper, together with two names proposed by his collaborators, Besser and Gorski. The identity of these names is discussed.