The VIOLA ALBIDA complex is a complicated group with taxonomic problems having continuous leaf variations and composed of taxa related to the following names:
Viola albida
,
V. albida
var.
takahashii
, and
V. chaerophylloides.
As a first step to understanding the genomic nature of this complex, this study identified the whole chloroplast genome of
V. albida
. The genome is 157,692 bp in length (36.3% of GC content) and contains four subregions: a large single copy region of 86,220 bp, a small single copy region of 17,248 bp, and a pair of inverted regions of 27,112 bp each. An annotation of the gene identifies 111 unique genes, including 77 protein-coding genes, four rRNA genes, and 30 tRNA genes. The phylogenetic analysis of this genome with selected cp genomes from
Viola
identifies the close relationship between
V. albida
and
V. ulleungdoensis.
It is noteworthy that
V. chaerophylloides
, traditionally recognized as a member of the VIOLA ALBIDA complex, is genetically distant from
V. albida
and forms a sister group of all other members of the subsection
Patellares
. Our genome report is expected to serve as a basis for understanding the identity of the VIOLA ALBIDA complex.