Agalinis
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About 70; see text |
Agalinis Raf. (false foxglove) [1]is a genus of about 70 individuals that until recently was aligned with members of the family Scrophulariaceae. As a result of numerous molecular phylogenetic studies based on various chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) loci, it was shown to be more closely related to members of the Orobanchaceae. Agalinis spp. are hemiparasitic, which is a character that in part describes the Orobanchaceae.
The historical classification of members of the genus and the delineation relationships among species within the genus were accomplished by Francis W. Pennell in the late 1920' and early 1930's. A great deal was done more recently during the late 1970's and the 1980's by Judith Canne-Hilliker who published a great deal on the defining characteristics of many of the species and has suggested changes to Pennell's classification scheme. For instance, the sculpting of the seed surface as seen with electron microscopy is usually species-diagnostic. Greg Dieringer in the 1990's investigated the reproductive ecology of multiple Agalinis spp. including the self-incompatible Agalinis strictifolia and the autogamous bee-visited Agalinis skinneriana.
A species of Agalinis that is of particular importance is the federally listed endangered plant species Agalinis acuta. Many other members of the genus are also of conservation concern and are identified at the both the state and global level as threatened. Some species are very narrowly endemic, growing only on particular substrates.
References
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Agalinis". Image Credit.
