Bartsia

Bartsia was named after Johann Bartsch (Latinized as Johannes Bartsius, 1709-1738), a botanist of Königsberg. The plant was named for him by his associate Carl Linnaeus, and the genus has been sometimes spelt as Bartschia.[1]

Starbia, an anagram of Bartsia, is another genus of Orobanchaceae, synonym of Alectra.[2]

The phylogeny of the genera of Rhinantheae has been explored using molecular characters.[3][4] Bartsia belongs to the core Rhinantheae. Bartsia sensu stricto (e.g. B. alpina) is the sister genus to Odontites, Bellardia, Tozzia, Hedbergia, and Euphrasia.

In 1990, the genus was revised to contain 49 species; 45 of them are endemic to the Andes.[5] The most familiar species might be the well-studied Bartsia alpina, which has a circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout northern regions of the Northern Hemisphere.[6] There are also two afromontane species, restricted to the mountains of northeastern Africa: Bartsia decurva and Bartsia longiflora. These two plants, B. alpina, and the many Andean species are three distinct lineages, making the genus polyphyletic.[7][4][8]

As a solution to the problem of Bartsia polyphyly, two taxonomic adjustments have been proposed.

1. All South American species are reclassified into the new genus Neobartsia.[8] This new name keeps traceability with Bartsia while incorporating information about its New World distribution (in ancient Greek, νέος, i.e. néos, means 'new').
2. The two African species Bartsia decurva and Bartsia longiflora are reclassified into the existing genus Hedbergia.[4]

Accepted species names include the following taxa classified according to geographic distribution groups.[9][8]