Are Palmer’s Elm-Leaf Goldenrod and the Smooth Elm-Leaf Goldenrod Real? The Angiosperms353 Kit Provides Within-Species Signal in Solidago ulmifolia s. l.

Abstract

Abstract— The genus Solidago represents a taxonomically challenging group due to its sheer number of species, putative hybridization, polyploidy, and shallow genetic divergence among species. Here we use a dataset obtained exclusively from herbarium specimens to evaluate the status of Solidago ulmifolia var. palmeri, a morphologically subtle taxon potentially confined to Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Missouri. A multivariate analysis of both discrete and continuous morphological data revealed no clear distinction between S. ulmifolia var. palmeri and Solidago ulmifolia var. ulmifolia. Solidago ulmifolia var. palmeri’s status was also assessed with a phylogenomic and SNP clustering analysis of data generated with the “Angiosperms353” probe kit. Neither analysis supported Solidago ulmifolia var. palmeri as a distinct taxon, and we suggest that this name should be discarded. The status of Solidago delicatula (formerly known as Solidago ulmifolia var. microphylla) was also assessed. Both morphological and phylogenetic analyses supported the species status of S. delicatula and we suggest maintaining this species at its current rank. These results highlight the utility of the Angiosperms353 probe kit, both with herbarium tissue and at lower taxonomic levels. Indeed, this is the first study to utilize this kit to identify genetic groups within a species.

Goldenrod herbariomics: Hybrid‐sequence capture reveals the phylogeny of Solidago

“…This establishes that although older specimens do produce fewer reads, these data are sufficient to recover long contigs at most loci. This research joins a growing number of studies that have shown broad compatibility between hybridization-sequence capture methods and herbarium material (Brewer et al, 2019;Forrest et al, 2019;Shee et al, 2020;Kates et al, 2021;Slimp et al, 2021;Beck et al, 2022).…”

“…& A. Gray was not included in our phylogeny as its chromosome number is unknown, Beck et al (2022) determined that it likely belongs in sect. Venosae .…”

Easy353: A Tool to Get Angiosperms353 Genes for Phylogenomic Research

“…The Angiosperms353 gene set (AGS) is a set of universal low-copy nuclear genes, which were extracted from the 1KP ( Leebens-Mack et al 2019 ) transcriptomes. The AGS can be utilized at taxonomic scales representing either deep or shallow phylogenetic divergence ( Antonelli et al 2021 ; Baker, Dodsworth et al 2021 ; Beck et al 2021 ; Clarkson et al 2021 ; Pérez-Escobar et al 2021 ; Slimp et al 2021 ). The number of articles employing the AGS has been increasing over time.…”