Current status of Lysimachia sikokiana Miq. (Primulaceae) in Hiroshima Prefecture, SW Japan

Abstract

Lysimachia sikokiana Miq. (Primulaceae) is rare in the Seto Inland Sea area, SW Japan, and has been listed as an RDB species of Hiroshima Prefecture. This species is currently known in its natural habitat from one locality only in Miyajima Island. The plants on Miyajima Island were growing vigorously at a forest edge as well as in an unstable crown gap site in an evergreen broad-leaved forest, as previously reported by Mukai et al. (1999). Sequences of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (nr ITS) and chloroplast trnL–trnF intergenic spacer (cp trnL–trnF) for this species were obtained for developing DNA barcoding for species identification and to reveal its phylogenetic position.