Nahuatlea: a new genus of compositae (Gochnatieae) from North America

Abstract

In the course of a detailed molecular study of the tribe Gochnatieae (Compositae: Gochnatioideae) it became apparent that the genus Gochnatia (sensu Cabrera) was not monophyletic but composed of a number of morphologically, geographically, and molecularly distinct clades. All but one of these clades had previously been recognized at the generic or sectional level and therefore had a name that could be applied. However, one clade, whose members are from Mexico and adjacent parts of the United States, had never been recognized as a distinct taxon. The Mexican clade is the sister group of the Caribbean clade which seems to indicate a dispersal event from Southern South America to Mexico and from Mexico to the Caribbean. Here we provide the Mexican clade with a genus name, Nahuatlea, and make the necessary new combinations. The name is derived from Nahuatl, the major indigenous language that is spoken in the area where most of the collections were gathered. A genus description, key to species, images, and a short, species descriptions, are provided.

Generic Relationships in Gochnatioideae (Asteraceae) Including Tehuasca, a New Genus from Northeastern Mexico.

“…1) provided strong evidence to support recognition of a monophyletic Gochnatia that includes three of the six sections of the genus recognized by Cabrera (1971), namely sections Gochnatia, Moquiniastrum (including G. cordata) and Pentaphorus, and G. palosanto of section Hedraiophyllum. This novel concept excludes the Caribbean and Mexican species of Gochnatia that have been recently transferred to the genera Anastraphia and Nahuatlea, respectively (Ventosa-Rodriguez and Herrera-Oliver 2011b; Funk et al, 2014;2017). An alternate taxonomic view that recognizes Moquiniastrum and Pentaphorus at generic rank is similarly consistent with the ITSþETS phylogeny.…”

“…A phylogenetic study using nrITS concatenated with several chloroplast markers (Funk et al, 2014) shows that Gochnatia s. l. is paraphyletic with the South American species placed in two clades, one with members of Gochnatia section Moquiniastrum sister to Richterago, and the other clade including taxa of Gochnatia sections Pentaphorus and Gochnatia and sister to all other species of the subfamily except Cyclolepis. The Mexican species of Gochnatia that were strongly supported as sister to Anastraphia have been recognized subsequently as a new genus, Nahuatlea (Funk et al, 2017). Despite a lack of significant statistical support for the relationships of the three clades of South American Gochnatia representing sections Gochnatia, Moquiniastrum and Pentaphorus, Funk et al (2014) choose to recognize these three groups at the genus level.…”

Vickia, a new genus of tribe Gochnatieae (Compositae)

“…-The choice of the monophyletic genera and species was based on Funk & al. (2014Funk & al. ( , 2017, i.e., Anastraphia, Cnicothamnus, Cyclolepis, Gochnatia (including G. sect.…”

“…(2014) and other authors as monophyletic genera, among which some of them were previously segregated from Gochnatia s.l. or included some of its species: Anastraphia D.Don (Caribbean species; Ventosa‐Rodriguez & Herrera‐Oliver, 2011), Cnicothamnus (Argentina, Bolivia), Moquiniastrum (Cabrera) G.Sancho (South America; Sancho & al., 2013), Gochnatia (Central Andes), Nahuatlea V.A.Funk (North America; Funk & al., 2017), Pentaphorus D.Don (Argentina, Chile), Richterago (Brazil; Roque & Pirani, 2014), and Cyclolepis (Argentina, Paraguay) as incertae sedis.…”

Two new species for Gochnatia Kunth (Asteraceae, Gochnatieae) and an extension of the tribal range into Ecuador

“…Recent papers on the immediate group of genera include Katinas et al (2008) and Funk et al (2009Funk et al ( , 2014. Generic level papers include those on Richterago Kuntze (Roque and Pirani 2001), Anastraphia D.Don (Ventosa-Rodríguez and Herrera-Oliver 2011), Moquiniastrum (Cabrera) G.Sancho (Sancho et al 2013), and Nahuatlea V.A.Funk (Funk et al 2017). These efforts have further refined our concepts.…”