Endemic Trollius from southeast Sakhalin: revealing another taxonomic confusion in Trollius L. taxonomy – the “T. miyabei case”

Abstract

Taxonomic history of Trollius miyabei Sipliv. is presented together with a review of status and usage of that name in botanical and popular-scientific literature. The name T. miyabei Sipliv. should be treated as a synonym of T. riederianus Fisch. et C.A. Mey. The wrong attribution of that name – for T. altaicus C.A. Mey. subsp. sachalinensis Kadota – is analyzed in details. A molecular genetic research together with a morphological study prove that subspecies to deserve a species status; the necessary new combination – T. sachalinensis (Kadota) Serebryanyi – is proposed, detailed morphological description is provided. Trollius altaicus subsp. pulcher (Makino) Kadota is not present in the Sakhalin flora: previous identifications appeared wrong and should be attributed as T. sachalinensis. Taxonomic affinity of the species is reviewed; distribution of T. sachalinensis in southeast Sakhalin is revised, corrected and mapped. Thus, three species of the genus Trollius occur in Sakhalin: T. riederianus, T. chinensis and T. sachalinensis (Kadota) Serebryanyi.