Some light shed on Galium transcarpaticum (Rubiaceae) from the Ukrainian Carpathians

Galium transcarpaticum was described in 1979 as an endemic occurring exclusively in the Ukrainian Carpathians. Since then, little has been contributed to its taxonomy and distribution, and only a few specimens have been collected. We successfully isolated DNA and amplified nuclear (ITS) and plastid (trn H- psb A, atp B- rbc L, trn L (c-d), and trn L (e-f )) markers from G. transcarpaticum isotype specimens deposited at the LWS herbarium.

The obtained results do not allow delimiting G. transcarpaticum as an independent species, but rather place it within G. mollugo. Hence, the new combination Galium mollugo subsp. transcarpaticum (Stojko & Tasenk.) A. V. Novikov, Nachychko & Zinenko is proposed.