Merging Maddenia with the morphologically diverse Prunus (Rosaceae)

Maddenia (Rosaceae) has been distinguished from Prunus on the basis of its tepaloid perianth and one‐ to two‐carpellate gynoecium. These distinctive morphological traits nonetheless overlap with several Prunus spp. Maddenia has previously been shown to be nested within Prunus, more specifically within a clade containing members of subgenera Laurocerasus and Padus, but its phylogenetic position within that clade has not been defined precisely. This study clarifies the position of Maddenia within Prunus through phylogenetic analyses of nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and plastid ndhF sequences, with an expanded sampling of tropical species of subgenus Laurocerasus and the inclusion of three Maddenia spp. The monophyly of Maddenia is supported by both the ITS and ndhF analyses, but both datasets support the inclusion of Maddenia in Prunus. All trees from the ITS analysis and some trees from the ndhF analysis also support a close alliance of Maddenia with a clade comprising temperate species of subgenera Laurocerasus and Padus. On the basis of these results, all recognized species of Maddenia are herein formally transferred to Prunus, which requires four new combinations and one new name: Prunus fujianensis (Y.T.Chang) J.Wen, comb. nov. ; Prunus himalayana J.Wen, nom. nov. ; Prunus hypoleuca (Koehne) J.Wen, comb. nov. ; Prunus hypoxantha (Koehne) J.Wen, comb. nov. ; and Prunus incisoserrata (T.T.Yü & T.C.Ku) J.Wen, comb. nov. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 164 , 236–245.