Gagea sect. Graminifoliae Levichev

Zarrei, Mehdi, Wilkin, Paul, Ingrouille, Martin J. & Chase, And Mark W., 2011, A revised infrageneric classification for Gagea Salisb. (Tulipeae; Liliaceae): insights from DNA sequence and morphological data, Phytotaxa 15, pp. 44-56 : 47

Gagea sect. Graminifoliae Levichev

Neither morphological nor molecular data ( Peterson et al. 2008, Zarrei et al. 2009) support this as a distinct section. Two distinct pollen types, perforate and foveolate, were observed in G. graminifolia Vvedensky (1932: 269) and G. vegeta , respectively, both included in this section ( Zarrei & Zarre 2005). Morphological and ontogenetic characters were mentioned as synapomorphies of G. sect. Graminifoliae by Peterson et al. (2008), but these are also shared with other sections, such as G. sect. Platyspermum sensu Levichev and G. sect. Incrustatae. Anatomical characters also do not support the monophyly of G. sect. Graminifoliae; G. vegeta (the only included species in Zarrei et al. (2010d) grouped with G. sections Minimae (Pascher) Davlianidze and Gagea . In analyses of nrITS and plastid sequences ( Zarrei et al. 2009), the only included species, G. vegeta , is embedded in clade C, the species of which form an enlarged G. sect. Platyspermum (see below). Peterson et al. (2008) included three species of G. sect. Graminifoliae in their analyses, and all fall into the clade containing other members of G. sect. Platyspermum as used here. All available data therefore indicate that this section should be merged with an expanded G. sect. Platyspermum .