Expanding Ventilago to incorporate Smythea: new combinations in Ventilagineae (Rhamnaceae) based on novel sequence data and phylogenetic analysis

Summary Ventilagineae (Rhamnaceae) is a tribe of palaeotropical climbing plants, comprising two genera: Smythea and Ventilago . Previous studies have established the monophyly of the tribe, but the relationships within it remain unclear. This research includes six species of Smythea and seven species of Ventilago in a molecular phylogeny using the Angiosperms353 probe set. The results show that Ventilago is paraphyletic, with Smythea nested within it. To resolve this issue, we propose to merge Smythea into Ventilago . To achieve this, we make six new combinations and one new name in Ventilago as well as resurrecting five names previously published in Ventilago but subsequently transferred to Smythea . In addition, we typify Ventilago .