Pseudomertensia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. They are perennial herbs with blue or bluish purple flowers. Their natural range is from Iran to the Himalayas.David J. Mabberley. 2008. Mabberley's Plant-Book third edition (2008). Cambridge University Press: UK. (See External links below). None have been found in ChinaZhu Ge-Ling, Harald Udo von Riedl, and Rudolf V. Kamelin. 1995. Boraginaceae. pages 329-427. In: Wu Zhengyi, Peter H. Raven, and Hong Deyuan and Flora of China Editorial Committee (editors). 1994 onward. Flora of China vol. 16: Gentianaceae - Boraginaceae. Science Press: Beijing, China; and Missouri Botanical Garden Press: St. Louis, MO, USA. (vol. 16) (set). (See External links below). or Russia.Sergei K. Czerepanov. 2007. Vascular Plants of Russia and Adjacent States. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, England. . P. echioides, and the type species for the genus, P. elongata,Pseudomertensia In: Index Nominum Genericorum. In Regnum Vegetabile (see External links below). are occasionally cultivated as ornamentals.Anthony Huxley, Mark Griffiths, and Margot Levy (1992). The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening. The Macmillan Press, Limited: London. The Stockton Press: New York. (set).
Most sources list about 12 species,Pseudomertensia in Flora of Pakistan (See External links below).Pseudomertensia in The Plant List (See External links below). but some include as many as 14.Pseudomertensia in Tropicos (See External links below). Pseudomertensia was once thought to be closely related to Mertensia, but molecular phylogenetic studies have placed it close to Myosotis.
Species Author citations are from Tropicos.
Pseudomertensia chitralensis Pseudomertensia echioides Pseudomertensia efornicata Pseudomertensia elongata Pseudomertensia flavescens Pseudomertensia moltkioides Pseudomertensia parviflora Pseudomertensia sericophylla Pseudomertensia trollii
History In 1967, Harald Udo von Riedl erected the genus Pseudomertensia for eight species which, at that time, were recognized in Mertensia.Pseudomertensia in International Plant Names Index. (see External links below). The genus is named for its apparent, but false, relationship with Mertensia.Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names, volume III. CRC Press: Baton Rouge, New York, London, Washington DC. (vol. III). (see External links below).
The species recognized by Riedl were P. chitralensis, P. echioides, P. efornicata, P. elongata, P. parviflora, P. edelbergii, P. primuloides, and P. lindelofioides.Harald Udo von Riedl. 1967. Pseudomertensia. pages 58-63. In: "Boraginaceae". pages 1-281. In: Karl Heinz Rechinger (editor). Flora Iranica, monograph 48. Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt: Graz, Austria. The first five of these are still universally recognized. Some authors treat P. edelbergii as a variety of P. trollii, and P. primuloides as a variety of P. moltkioides. Some authors believe that P. lindelofioides is misplaced in Pseudomertensia, and they place it in Lindelofia as Lindelofia olgea. It is indigenous to Turkestan and Afghanistan. Lindelofia longiflora has been sampled in molecular phylogenetic studies, but L. olgea has not.
The distinctive Pakistani species, Pseudomertensia sericophylla is placed by some authors in a monospecific genus as Decalepidanthus sericophyllus.Harald Udo von Riedl. 1963. "Decalepidanthus, eine neue Borraginaceen-Gattung aus NW-Pakistan". Oesterreichische Botanische Zeitschrift (Austrian Journal of Botany) 110(5):608-612. current title: Plant Systematics and Evolution. (See External links below). Decalepidanthus is occasionally misspelled. It means "flower with ten scales".Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names volume II. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington, DC;, USA. London, UK. (vol. II). (see External links below).
After Pseudomertensia was established in 1967, six more species were described in 1970 by :es:Syed Muhammad Anwar Kazmi in the second of a series of seven articles revising the Boraginaceae of Pakistan.Syed Muhammad Anwar Kazmi. 1970. Pseudomertensia pages 367-383. In: Part 2 Of: Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 51(3):367-402. (See External links below). A few more species were added later, the last of these being P. flavescens in 1996.Rubina A. Rafiq. 1996. "Three New Species from Pallas Valley, District Kohistan, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan". Novon 6(3):295-297.
The segregation of Pseudomertensia from Mertensia has been confirmed by cladistic analysis of DNA sequences. These place Pseudomertensia closest to Myosotis, at least among the genera that have been sampled so far.Maximilian Weigend, Federico Luebert, Federico Selvi, Grischa Brokamp, and Hartmut H. Hilger. 2013. "Multiple origins for Hound's tongues (Cynoglossum L.) and Navel seeds (Omphalodes Mill.) – The phylogeny of the borage family (Boraginaceae s.str.)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 68(3):604-618. . (see External links below). The sampling of genera in taxonomic studies of Boraginaceae has not been sufficient to determine whether Pseudomertensia and Myosotis are sister groups.James I. Cohen. 2014. "A phylogenetic analysis of morphological and molecular characters of Boraginaceae: evolutionary relationships, taxonomy, and patterns of character evolution". Cladistics 30(2):139-169.
References
External links Pseudomertensia Mabberley's Plant-Book List of lower taxa Chinese Plant Names Boraginaceae FOC vol. 16 Family List Flora of China eFloras Pseudomertensia Index Nominum Genericorum References NMNH Department of Botany Research and Collections Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Pseudomertensia Boraginaceae Flora of Pakistan Projects Tropicos Pseudomertensia Browse The Plant List Pseudomertensia (Search Exact) At: Names At: Tropicos At: Science and Conservation At: Missouri Botanical Garden Pseudomertensia Plant Names IPNI CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: D-L CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: M-Q Botany & Plant Science Life Science CRC Press "Look Inside" Decalepidanthus Plant Systematics and Evolution 110:(5) Pseudomertensia volume 51 Journal of the Arnold Arboretum BHL Weigend et al.2013