Pourthiaea villosa (Thunb.) Decne.

Oriental redtip

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Tree, Shrub

Perennial

Vascular

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Robertson et al. (1991) lump Photinia and Aronia together under the genus Photinia stating that the flowers and fruits are "indistinguishable". Kalkman (2004) agreed with Robertson et al.’s (1991) taxonomy (albeit uneasily and called for a "badly needed" worldwide monograph) but showed that if this taxonomy is followed, Aronia is the older name and therefore has priority. Since Kalkman’s (2004) publication an overview of the phylogeny of the Rosaceae was undertaken based on molecular work (Potter et al. 2007). The latter study found Aronia and Photinia to be distinct. We follow the taxonomy of Potter et al. (2007) in maintaining the distinction between Aronia and Photinia. Therefore, the naturalized Asian Photinia villosa does not need to be moved to the genus Aronia. Nesom and Gandhi (2009) demonstrate that there are some issues related to the typification of the genus Photinia and propose conserving the name based on an Asian species P. glabra (Thunb.) Franch. & Sav. If this proposal is not accepted the name Photinia villosa, would need to be transferred to another genus.

Not Native Naturalized SNA (State Rank) GNR (Global Rank)

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