A revised taxonomic system of the genus Saussurea (Asteraceae)

Saussurea is one of the largest and most rapidly evolving genera within the Asteraceae, comprising approximately 520 species from the Northern Hemisphere. These species exhibit extraordinary diversity in both morphologies and preferred habitats. A comprehensive infrageneric classification, supported by robust phylogenetic trees and corroborated by morphological and other data, has not yet been published, due to the complex evolutionary history of Saussurea.

The Plant Diversity and Taxonomic Group, led by Yousheng Chen, in South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has long focused on the systematics, evolution, and taxonomy of the genus Saussurea. Based on the nuclear phylogeny obtained and morphological characters, they, recently, proposed a revised infrageneric taxonomy of Saussurea. This study recovered nuclear and chloroplast phylogenies of Saussurea, showed that a phylogeny based on nuclear data is more suitable than one based on chloroplast data for exploring the infrageneric classification of Saussurea, found five diagnostic characteristics of four clades, and finally, proposed a revised infrageneric taxonomy with four subgenera and 13 sections.

The paper entitled "New insights into the phylogeny and infrageneric taxonomy of Saussurea based on hybrid capture phylogenomics (Hyb-Seq)" was recently published online in Plant Diversity. Dr. Liansheng Xu is the first author of the paper, and Prof. Yousheng Chen is the corresponding author. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Guangzhou Science and technology project. Link to the article: doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pld.2024.10.003).

First author information: Liansheng Xu, assistant researcher, Plant Science Research Center, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Research field, taxonomy and phylogeny of plants; E-mail: xuliansheng@scbg.ac.cn; Tel: +8613521946187.

Figure. A new infrageneric classification for Saussurea