Revision of Campylosiphon (Burmanniaceae), with New Combinations and a New Species Described

Abstract

Campylosiphon (Burmanniaceae), a genus with two fully mycoheterotrophic species distributed in the tropics of South America and West Africa, is extended to include two Asian species and one African species with "wingless" flowers. Specifically, Burmannia championii and B. densiflora are transferred to Campylosiphon, and a Campylosiphon species new to science is described from Guizhou, China, supported by a combination of morphological comparison and molecular phylogenetic inference. We reveal that the genus Campylosiphon can be characterized by five morphological aspects. With this revised circumscription, Campylosiphon becomes the third genus in Burmanniaceae with a pantropical distribution pattern. We also report that two Campylosiphon species have advanced degraded plastomes, losing all protein coding genes for photosynthesis.