Taxonomic remarks on the south-east European and west Turkish Silene lydia (Caryophyllaceae)

Molecular analyses have shown that Silene lydia, a south-east European and west Turkish species, belongs to the Conoimorpha-clade, also including taxa distributed from the Mediterranean area to southwest-central Asia. However, cytological data and a morphological comparison between S. lydia and members of S. sect. Conoimorpha (with the exclusion of S. multinervia, recently transferred to S. sect. Californicae), show that S. lydia is distinguished by both vegetative (apex of cauline leaves) and reproductive (flower number per inflorescence, calyx hairiness, calyx length and corolla and petal insertion) characters. It is therefore proposed to treat S. lydia as a member of a new monotypic subsection and, thus, S. sect. Conoimorpha subsect. Lydiae, comb. et stat. nov. (type: S. lydia) is here proposed. Furthermore, the names S. lydia and S. harrisii are lectotypified by specimens preserved at G and K, respectively.