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Title: Taxonomy of wild potatoes and their relatives in southern South America (Solanum sects. Petota and Etuberosum)

Author
item Spooner, David
item CLAUSEN, ANDREA - National Institute Of Agricultural Technology(INTA)
item PERALTA, IRIS - University Of Cuyo
item ALVAREZ, NATALIA - Darwinion Botanical Institute

Submitted to: Systematic Botany Monographs
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/8/2015
Publication Date: 12/16/2016
Citation: Spooner, D.M., Alvarez, N., Peralta, I.E., Clausen, A.M. 2016. Taxonomy of wild potatoes and their relatives in southern South America (Solanum sects. Petota and Etuberosum). Systematic Botany Monographs. 100:240.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Solanum section Petota, which includes the cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum) and its wild relatives, is distributed from the southwestern United States to central Argentina and adjacent Chile. Section Etuberosum, a closely related outgroup section, is distributed in Argentina and Chile. Our taxonomic treatment includes all species of these two sections from southern South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay). Section Etuberosum is entirely diploid (2n = 2x = 24) and sect. Petota from this region includes diploids (2n = 2x = 24), triploids (2n = 3x = 36), tetraploids (2n = 4x = 48), and hexaploids (2n = 6x = 72). The field component of our study yielded herbarium specimens and germplasm samples from all countries harboring wild potatoes in this region. We here recognize three species from sect. Etuberosum and 26 species from sect. Petota, the latter divided into five informal species groups. Relative to the most recent comprehensive treatment of these species by Hawkes in 1990 we synonymized southern South American names of 36 species, seven subspecies, and one variety, and raised one subspecies to species rank; our treatment, therefore recognizes only 40% of the taxa from the 1990 treatment. We identified major range expansions for S. acaule and S. medians, that are new records for Chile. We present a summary of recent morphological and molecular studies of species limits and their interrelationships, descriptions, synonymies (including designations of lectotypes), species illustrations, localities, and distribution maps.