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Published on: July 11, 2025
Molecular and morphological evidence for recognition of two species within Harpagonella (Amsinckiinae, Boraginaceae)
C Matt Guilliams1, Timothy Jang2, Bruce G Baldwin2
1Jepson Herbarium and Department of Integrative Biology, University of California Berkeley, 1001 Valley Life Sciences Building #2465, Berkeley CA 94720-2465, United States of America; Santa Barbara Botanic Garden 1212 Mission Canyon Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93105-2126, United States of America.
Abstract:
Recent taxonomic treatments of the genus Harpagonella have included only one lower taxon, Harpagonella palmeri A. Gray. However, a larger-fruited variety of Harpagonella palmeri from Arizona and Sonora was described by I.M. Johnston in 1924. He continued to recognize this taxon - Harpagonella palmeri var. arizonica - in his treatment of the genus in Kearney and Peebles's Arizona Flora in 1960. Here, we provide two lines of molecular evidence and quantitative morphological evidence from calyx characters showing that plants of Harpagonella from Arizona, Sonora, and central Baja California, corresponding to Johnston's var. arizonica, are distinct from Harpagonella palmeri of southern California and Baja California. We make the new combination Harpagonella arizonica (I.M. Johnston) Guilliams & B.G. Baldwin, comb. nov. for the plants from Arizona, Sonora, and central Baja California.
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