From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 4, October 2013
A new gesneriad genus, Lesia J.L. Clark & J.F. Sm., has been named in honor of emeritus research botanist Laurence E. Skog. The genus was created to accommodate the odd South American (primarily Guianan) species Alloplectus savannarum C.V. Morton, which molecular phylogenies had shown did not belong to that or any other genus. The genus has a single species, Lesia savannarum (C.V. Morton) J.L. Clark & J.F. Sm. The authors of the published paper, James F. Smith (Boise State University) and John L. Clark (University of Alabama), write, “The new genus honors Laurence E. Skog (by using his initials L.E.S.), who has made numerous, invaluable contributions to our understanding of Neotropical Gesneriaceae” (Systematic Botany 38(2): 451-463; 2013).
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