Abstract
The genus Leptosolena currently accepted as monotypic and endemic to the Philippines, has been considered as an imperfectly known genus due to the description based on insufficient herbarium materials for describing floral characters and no recent collection. Our rediscovery of L. haenkei has made it possible not only to describe the species in more depth from fresh materials and to compare with the uncertain second species, L. insignis, more precisely, but to clarify the phylogenetic position among Zingiberaceae with molecular data. Our results support the former treatment that L. haenkei and L. insignis are conspecific, resulting in L. insignis as a later synonym. The lectotype of L. haenkei is chosen among Haenke's historical collections deposited at PR and PRC. Results from DNA sequence data of the ITS and matK loci demonstrate that Leptosolena forms a clade with Vanoverberghia and Alpinia species from the Philippines and Oceania.
