TITLE Reappraisal of Kitigorchis (Orchidaceae)
AUTHOR Tomohisa Yukawa
Tsukuba Botanical Garden, National Science Museum, Amakubo, Tsukuba, 305-0005, Japan
Shih-Wen Chung
Division of Forest Biology, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, Taipei, Taiwan 100
Yibo Luo
Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China
Ching-I Peng
Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan 115
Arata Momohara
Faculty of Horticulture, Chiba University, Matsudo, 271-8510, Japan
Hiroaki Setoguchi
Faculty of Integrated Human Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan
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ABSTRACT Kitigorchis, a monotypic genus supposed to be endemic in the central part of Japan, was recently found in the Central Mountain Range of Taiwan. Further investigation of herbarium specimens and descriptions revealed that Kitigorchis itoana is conspecific with Oreorchis indica, previously recorded from the western Himalaya to southwestern China. This pattern of geographic distribution represents another example of disjunct distribution between Japan, Taiwan and the Himalayan region within the Eastern Asiatic Kingdom. Phylogenetic analyses using DNA sequence data from the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the 18S-26S nuclear ribosomal DNA, matK, trnT-L intergenic spacer, trnL intron, trnL-F intergenic spacer, and rpL 16 intron showed that the monotypic Kitigorchis makes Oreorchis paraphyletic.
KEYWORD Disjunct distribution; Japan; Kitigorchis itoana; Orchidaceae; Oreorchis indica; Phylogeny; Taiwan; Taxonomy;
ARTICLE INFO Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica, Volume 44 Number 4 October 2003, page 345-351, 7 pages
PUBLISHER Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China