Dzhamal B. Rakhmetov, George A. Yatskievych, Andriy S. Mosyakin

Silphium × missouriense (Asteraceae, Heliantheae), the nothospecies name for an already reported interspecific hybrid

Abstract Several species and some interspecific hybrids of the North American genus Silphium (Asteraceae, Heliantheae) are now widely tested and partly used as promising new crops for various agricultural applications, such as biomass production for bioenergy and fodder; some species and (or) hybrids may also be potentially invasive. Six species and at least three hybrids of Silphium are cultivated at the M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden in Kyiv, Ukraine. Despite reliable reports of various spontaneous and (or) artificial hybrids, no hybrid names formed according to Chapter H of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants have been proposed in Silphium. The absence of convenient and informative hybrid (nothospecific) names in Silphium hampers communication in agricultural and botanical fields. It prevents the proper nomenclature for future cultivars of hybrid origin from further developing. In 2011, Jessee and Yatskievych reported and described morphologically a putative natural hybrid between Silphium integrifolium and Silphium laciniatum found in the State of Missouri; however, they provided only a hybrid formula, without formal naming of a nothospecies. Here we validate the nothospecies name for this hybrid, Silphium × missouriense Rakhmetov, Yatsk. & A.S. Mosyakin, nothosp. nov. (Silphium integrifolium × Silphium laciniatum) and indicate its holotype (MO-2382470) collected in the USA, Missouri, Jackson County. That name, based on a natural hybrid, will also be applicable to all artificial hybrids and cultivars resulting from crossing the same parent species. 

Doi https://doi.org/10.35513/Botlit.2026.2.5

Keywords hybrid, new crops, nomenclature, nothospecies, Silphium, taxonomy, Ukraine

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