Talk:Phryma leptostachya

Taxonomy
The taxonomy of this species has gotten a bit complicated. A single species has been recognized for the last several decades. On the basis of molecular phylogeny, Nie et al. (2006) recognizes a single species with 2 subspecies, one in the New World (subsp. leptostachya) and one in the Old World (subsp. asiatica): https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.3732/ajb.93.9.1343

Flora of China (2011) follows this treatment, synonymizing various Asian taxa under Phryma leptostachya subsp. asiatica: http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/PDF/PDF19/Phryma.pdf

A more recent reference (Endo & Miyauchi 2017) recognizes 2 distinct species in Japan, P. nana and P. oblongifolia, and includes the "asiatica" taxon (at whatever rank) under P. nana. What this means for the populations elsewhere in Asia, I don't know. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/30d3/882f089d2cdb425409e33bd0793c3991c3a7.pdf

The last reference omits any reference to the Chinese taxon Phryma esquirolii H.Lév. (1913), which--depending on circumscriptions--may have nomenclatural priority over one of their names at the rank of species. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.51.174.100 (talk) 19:13, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia webpage for Phryma leptostachya
In the top right corner of web page for Phryma leptostachya (Lopseed) there is a picture of the inflorescence for Hylodesmum glutinosum [Desmodium glutinosum], Large Tick-trefoil. The picture of the inflorescence at the bottom of the page (right side) is correct for Phryma leptostachya. 99.248.93.5 (talk) 19:24, 13 July 2022 (UTC)


 * I'm no botanist, but our other photos suggest you are quite correct. I made the change. SamuelRiv (talk) 22:07, 13 July 2022 (UTC)
 * In future you can make such corrections yourself, giving the reason as clearly as you did in an edit summary or on the corresponding talk page (i.e. this page), and you are encouraged to do so. Anybody can edit Wikipedia. — Bilorv ( talk ) 18:31, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

Taxonomy, continued
It's premature to say that Phryma leptostachya occurs only in North America. First, this is a taxonomic opinion, and most references still treat Phryma as consisting of a single species (P. leptostachya), often with two subspecies (P. leptostachya subsp. leptostachya in North America, P. leptostachya subsp. asiatica in Asia). The new treatment is a very recent minority view that has not been fully evaluated. More importantly, the fact that Japanese populations have been segregated as the (resurrected) species P. nana and P. oblongifolia does not mean that P. leptostachya does not occur in Asia. These authors examined Japanese populations almost exclusively; they examined a single specimen from China, and none from India, Korea, or Russia. It's unclear whether the names of the Japanese taxa can be applied to any of the continental (i.e., non-Japanese) Asian populations of Phryma. Finally, and critically, they did not address the name P. esquirolii, based on Chinese material, which has long been synonymized under P. leptostachya (or subsp. asiatica) but is older than, and thus has nomenclatural priority over, both P. nana and P. oblongifolia. 71.114.90.151 (talk) 23:44, 2 August 2022 (UTC)