Congruenze e incongruenze fra aspetti morfologici e molecolari nella sistematica filogenetica di Anchusa s.l. (Boraginaceae)

Some cases of congruences and incongruences between morphological characters and molecular data concerning the genus Anchusa sensu lato are presented and briefly discussed. When the two sources of evidence converge to the same result they sustain phylogenetic hypotheses and allow sound taxonomic choices to be made. This is the case of the three monotypic genera Hormuzakia, Phyllocara and Gastrocotyle, often included in Anchusa s.l. in spite of morphological distinctiveness and phylogenetic divergence from Anchusa subg. Anchusa. An example of lack of correlation between genes and morphology is instead provided by Anchusa limbata, a Southwest Anatolian endemic with remarkable apomorphies in floral structure but close to the other members of Anchusa in ITS and trnL sequences. In the cases of genus Cynoglottis the morphological-molecular congruence is only partial, as it corroborates separation from Anchusa on one side but not the relationship with the genus Brunnera which was supposed by previous authors on basis of shared characters in flower and fruit. The Sardinian endemics A. capellii and A. formosa form the only diverging lineage in subg. Anchusa. However, an apparent incongruence is due to the fact that this clade does not include also A. crispa, a third Corso- Sardinian endemic morphologically close to them. © 2018 Società Botanica Italiana onlus.