Biscutella pseudolyrata (Brassicaceae, Biscutelleae), a new species endemic to NW Morocco based on morphological and molecular evidence

Biscutella pseudolyrata is described from the Atlantic coastal areas of NW Morocco, where several populations are known to occur in deep sandy soils at low elevation. It belongs to B. ser. Biscutella (B. ser. Lyratae, Brassicaceae) and is morphologically close to the Spanish endemic B. lyrata and the C Mediterranean B. maritima, two species to which it has sometimes been considered related and with which it shares a diploid chromosome number 2n = 16. Re-evaluation of morphological characters in the light of phylogenetic trees from plastid (rpl32-trnL and trnV) and nuclear (ITS region) DNA sequence data support description of those Moroccan populations as a new species, which is phylogenetically closer to the W Mediterranean B. boetica but morphologically quite easy to distinguish from it. Data on morphology, ecology and distribution are reported, and similarities and differences with regard to other members of the series are discussed.