Seven new species of Trichostema (Lamiaceae: Ajugoideae) from the North American Coastal Plain biodiversity hotspot

Abstract

Trichostema section Trichostema occurs in the North American Coastal Plain biodiversity hotspot. Much of the previously noted morphological diversity in this section has so far gone unstudied. A combination of extensive field studies, principal components analyses and statistical tests on morphological data, common garden experiments, nextRAD sequencing, and Bayesian phylogenetic techniques was used to discover and describe taxonomic entities. The Bayesian phylogeny resolved strongly supported clades that mirrored the morphological, ecological, and geographic findings. Given the preponderance of the data, seven new taxa are described herein at species level.