Macro-Morphological and Ecological Variation in Rosa sericea Complex

Abstract

Taxon delimitation and identification are important in many areas of biology, especially in taxonomy and conservation. Taxonomic treatment is required to establish and justify recommendations in conservation biology for the group being considered. Imperfect and controversial taxonomy can undermine conservation assessment. We studied 71 populations; 665 individuals corresponding to the morphology of the Rosa sericea complex (including six taxa, one of which has extremely narrow distributions) were collected from sympatric, parapatric, and allopatric populations distributed in China. This study aims to investigate whether the complex species are macromorphologically different species and evaluate the rare taxa of the complex for conservation priority. The morphological characters and principal component analysis (PCA) of the R. sericea complex showed that the complex species have overlapping characters but can distinguish morphologically. The species of R. sericea complex systematics status based on previous DNA sequencing is controversial. The ecological habitat’s current morphological characters only delimit the R. morrisonensis (in Taiwan). To evade mistakes in species conservation, we recommend that taxonomical knowledge be needed to ensure success in protecting target species. Thus, the complementarity of systemic and conservation assurance makes conservation actions more necessary for the complex’s rare taxa. The ecological niche modelling (ENM) results showed that habitats of these conspecific taxa would be shrunken. With the presence of snapshots in time, the geography of taxa might decrease rapidly in representative entirely of the Geographic space (G-space) and Environmental space (E-space) that such taxa are bright to inhabit. So far, the significant inferences meant for the niche occupy the most incredible comparative research, taking the impermanent nature of taxa distributions and undertaking that such species are at a state of stability. If the artificially identified species (rarely distributed) are based on morphological identification, they must be conserved.

Comparative and Phylogenetic Analyses of Complete Chloroplast Genomes of Scrophularia incisa Complex (Scrophulariaceae)

“…Of these species, S. incisa displays a belt-like pattern of distribution, primarily in the northern Chinese provinces of Qinghai and Gansu as well as in Inner Mongolia, spreading to Central Asia in the west and to Siberia in the east [ 7 , 16 ]; S. dentata occurs in western and southern Tibet, northwest India and Pakistan; S. kiriloviana is found in Xinjiang Province and Central Asia [ 7 ]. However, the interspecific taxonomy is difficult due to similar morphological characters and habitat preferences (e.g., floodplains, grasslands, mountain valleys) [ 20 ], with primary differences being the calyx membrane and leaf shape, which are considered to be greatly influenced by environmental factors ( Figure 1 ). Our preliminary phylogenetic analyses of the genus Scrophularia based on nrITS and cpDNA placed this species complex as a monophyletic group embedded within the S. sect.…”

Identification and Registration for High-Yielding Strain through ST and MLT of Curcuma caesia Roxb. (Jor Lab KH-2): A High-Value Medicinal Plant

“…The expression of superior traits with uniform result is highly desirable. However, the trait expression may differ due to various factors including environment, genotype, and the combined effect of genotype and environment [ 40 , 41 , 42 ]. This necessitates the need for the study of genotype–environment (G × E) interaction to evaluate the performance and stability for the identification of elite genotypes.…”

A Comparative Analysis of the Chloroplast Genomes of Three Lonicera Medicinal Plants

“…L. similis was collected in the town of Dangwu, Huaxi District, Guiyang City (26°23′34.49″ N, 106°35′56.89″ E, 1158 m above sea level), Guizhou Province, China, and L. acuminata was harvested from the village of Hekou, the town of Muxi, Muchuan County, Sichuan Province, China (28°51′7.40″ N, 103°50′55.46″ E, 1114 m altitude) by Chenju Yang. According to the macroscopic morphological characteristics of the specimen, the species was determined [ 40 ]. Total genomic DNA of two species was extracted using an E.Z.N.A ® plant DNA kit (FEIYANG, Guangzhou, China).…”