초록/요약

Veratrum section Veratrum comprises eight species in Korea and Japan: V. alpestre, V. dahuricum, V. dolichopetalum, V. grandiflorum var. maximum, V. oxysepalum, V. patulum, V. stamineum var. micranthum, and V. stamineum var. stamineum. However, species delimitation and taxonomic treatments have long been controversial due to their highly variable vegetative and floral morphology. We conducted maximum parsimony (MP) and Bayesian inference (BI) based on a total of 4,856 base pairs of nrDNA ITS and cpDNA coding and noncoding regions (matK, psbA-trnH, rpL16, and trnS-G) to re-examine the taxonomic status and phylogenetic relationships within Veratrum sect. Veratrum. The MP and BI trees were poorly resolved among species within Veratrum sect. Veratrum in Korea and Japan. Veratrum stamineum, which has outward spreading, exerted stamens beyond the tepals, diverged first within Veratrum and the remaining species, which have straight shorter stamens compared to the tepals, formed a monophyletic group with poor species delimitation and phylogenetic relationships among them. The incongruent phylogenetic position of V. grandiflorum var. maximum between ITS and cpDNA (it shares its most recent common ancestor with poorly resolved sect. Veratrum species in ITS, whereas it is sister to V. stamineum in cpDNA) suggested that it represents possible ancient hybrid origin between V. stamineum and V. oxysepalum. Thus, in this study we elevated the taxonomic status of V. grandiflorum var. maximum to the species rank, V. maximum. V. alpestre, which was described as a new species by Nakai in 1937, has identical ribotype and cpDNA haplotype of V. oxysepalum and its morphological variations are within the range of V. oxysepalum. Therefore, we suggest that V. alpestre should be synomized with V. oxysepalum. A further study using fast evolving nuclear and chloroplast regions is required to resolve the phylogenetic relationships among species within Veratrum sect. Veratrum.