GENERIC PLACEMENT OF CHAPTALIA HINTONII (ASTERACEAE: MUTISIEAE)

Chaptalia hintonii, of south-central Mexico, was recently transferred to the otherwise essentially Old World genus Gerbera on the basis of the occurrence of staminodes in the pistillate flowers. No clear position within Gerbera was determined for the species. In contrast, C. hintonii also has been placed among the eight species of sect. Chaptalia, based on its similarity in a set of features including scape morphology, head behavior, ray corolla morphology, cypselar vestiture, flower biology, and geography. Other species of South American and Mexican Chaptalia, including one other from sect. Chaptalia, also are known to produce staminodes, a feature interpreted here as plesiomorphic, either as vestigial occurrence or as the result of developmental intermediacy between bisexual disc florets and outer, pistillate ray florets. The hypothesis that C. hintonii belongs with Chaptalia is stronger than that for positioning C. hintonii in Gerbera.