Physolychnis

Lidén, Magnus & Oxelman, Bengt, 2023, FLORA OF NEPAL NOTULAE IV: NEW SPECIES AND RESURRECTED NAMES IN SILENE, Edinburgh Journal of Botany 80 (367), pp. 1-28 : 9

Section Physolychnis

The section Physolychnis was monographed by Bocquet (1969), regrettably with some misapplied names as well as some mergers of unrelated species, which has haunted Asian Silene sect. Physolychnis taxonomy ever since. Zhou Li-Hua (1983) made a taxonomically sound revision of the Tibetan species, but due to poor access to type specimens she applied erroneous epithets to several taxa, while redescribing others that were already named. Our own Silene sect. Physolychnis treatment for Flora of China ( Zhou et al., 2001) perpetuated some of the mistakes by both authors and managed to add at least one. These are rectified here, as far as they pertain to Nepalese species.

The Silene sect. Physolychnis species in Nepal have prominent petal claw auricles, woolly-hairy androgynophore (with two exceptions), ± inflated calyx and, if not single-flowered,

an asymmetrical synflorescence. Because the vast majority have five styles, they were frequently first described in Lychnis L. ( Bentham, 1839) or Melandrium Röhl. ( Zhou, 1983) , but DNA data indicate that the genera Physolychnis and Melandrium belong in Silene sensu stricto as separate sections within the subgenus Behenantha (Otth) Torr. & A.Gray. Lychnis is more distantly related ( Oxelman et al., 2001). The number of styles is not an absolute indicator for section membership; Silene aprica Turcz. , S. firma Siebold & Zucc. , S. holosteifolia Bocquet

& Chater, S. indica , S. scopulorum Franch. and a few others have three styles. Allopolyploidy is common in Silene sect. Physolychnis in the American and Arctic areas, but little is known about the Himalayan taxa in this respect (but see 7. Silene blepharicalyx ).