The plant genus Fothergilla, a small genus in the southeastern US was updated in May 2020 in the central database. Some of these taxa are of conservation concern. Haynes et al 2020 will be the new Standard taxonomy for this genus.
Taxa involved:
Current taxonomy in Biotics:
Fothergilla major
F. gardenii
New taxonomy in Haynes et al. 2020:
F. major - no change
F. gardenii - s.s.
F. milleri
F. parviflora
Email to member programs:
Hi all,
You’re probably aware of the attached publication that revises the taxonomy of Fothergilla. F. major remains unchanged, but the circumscription of F. gardenia changes due to the discovery of several diploid populations that turn out to be new species (F. parviflora and F. milleri).
These are some questions for the proposed changes below:
Do wish to use the new Fothergilla treatment? This will be NatureServe’s standard for this genus, and these records will go to NS Explorer.
If ‘yes’, then take a look at the proposed changes for your state and let me know if the new records can be added* **
What should the SRANKs be, and where should the EOs be moved?
*You’ll get the EGTs for the new Fothergilla records when your program is set to get a bulk load from the Central database. This typically occurs once a week. I looked this up, and here’s what I found: FL Monday, GA Friday, AL Monday, NC Tuesday, SC Monday. After the EGTs and ENTs are loaded into your Biotics via the central to local exchange, you can create the ESTs and move the EO data. It is recommended that you delete the old ESTs after you move the data.
** We’re trying to expedite this taxonomic update so we can include it in the next refresh of NatureServe Explorer in May
Here is the new distribution based on Haynes 2020:
F. major – no change
F. gardenii splits into F. parviflora (GA, SC), F. milleri (AL, nw FL), and F. gardenii s.s. (coastal plain of NC, SC, GA)
Proposed changes:
NC: Move F. gardenii data to the new record for F. gardeniis s.s. concept ref will be Haynes et al 2020
SC: Move F. gardenii data to the new record for F. gardenii s.s. concept ref will be Haynes et al 2020;
Add record for F. parviflora
Currently, there is no SRANK on the record for F. gardenii. Could you give these (F. gardenii and F. parviflora) taxa an SRANK?
GA Georgia is the only state that has all three newly circumscribed species. All three of the new records should be added to the GA database F. gardenii s.s., F. parviflora, F. milleri. F. gardenii currently has an SRANK of S2, and 10 EOs. Do you know what the SRANKs of these new taxa should be and how the EOs should be split among the taxa?
AL: In the new treatment, AL no longer has F. gardenii and this material is moved to F. parviflora and F. milleri. The SRANK on F. gardenii in Biotics is S1 and there is 1 EO.
FL: In the new treatment, FL no longer has F. gardenii but has F. milleri. The SRANK on gardenii is S1, so F. milleri would also be S1. The EOs would also move here.
Leah Oliver