Oreomecon Banfi, Bartolucci, J.

Banfi, Enrico, Bartolucci, Fabrizio, Tison, Jean-Marc & Galasso, Gabriele, 2022, A new genus for Papaver sect. Meconella and new combinations in Roemeria (Papaveraceae) in Europe and the Mediterranean area, Natural History Sciences 9 (1), pp. 67-72 : 68

Oreomecon Banfi, Bartolucci, J. - M.Tison & Galasso, gen. nov.

bas.: Papaver sect. Meconella Spach,Hist.Nat.Vég. (Spach) 7: 19. 1838 ≡ Papaver [unranked] Lasiotrachyphylla Bernh. ≡ Papaver sect. Lasiotrachyphylla (Bernh.) Pfeiff.

Type: Papaver alpinum L.

Etymology: ὄρεο- (oreo -) stem of the genitive of ὄρος (oros), mountain, and μήκων (mekon), poppy.

= Papaver sect. Scapiflora Elkan , nom. illeg.

Type: Papaver nudicaule L.

Note. Papaver sect. Meconella consists of 24 (Rändel, 1974) to 30 (Carolan et al., 2006) species distributed over the entire circumboreal area, from the polar regions to the reliefs. Many of them represent geographical, topographical and local variants that differ in the combination of characters consistent at first glance (color of the petals, shape and size of the fruit, shape of the leaf divisions, development of the scape, hairiness), which, however, does not allow to draw acceptable taxonomic conclusions. The most studied species belong to the European territory (Arctic sector and southern reliefs). A phylogeny of the P. alpinum species complex addressed on a molecular and morphological basis (Schönswetter et al., 2009) led to the conclusion that the species of this group (11 species according to Euro+Med) represent populational expressions of a single species defined by the authors as hypervariable and which taxonomically do not have even intraspecific relevance. The most western populations (Pyrenees, Spain) are an exception for which the authors propose to maintain the rank of subspecies [with the trinomial P. alpinum subsp. lapeyrouseanum (Gutermann) Kadereit ]. In the present transfer from Papaver to Oreomecon , last genus established here, we intend to take into consideration only the species present in Europe (native and alien) as reported in Euro+Med (Aghababjan, 2011b), as they are better known and largely phylogenetically resolved, including 5 Arctic entities and 1 South European orophyte with 2 subspecies.