Using DNA sequence data from nuclear ribosomal ITS in combination with plastid trnLF spacer and trnL intron data, we show that Sibbaldia is a polyphyletic assemblage. It falls into five separate clades of Potentilleae, three within Fragariinae and two within Potentilla (Potentillinae sensu Sojak). To a large extent, our results are congruent with Sojak's findings based on morphological characters such as anther structure. Four of the Sibbaldia species included in this study remain in Sibbaldia, while S. adpressa is classified in Sibbaldianthe, S. perpusilloides is considered to represent a new genus in Fragariinae, Chamaecallis Smedmark, S. micropetala is nested within the Potentilla anserina clade, and four species belong to a basal clade of Potentilla. The phylogenetic affinity of Sibbaldiopsis is still unsettled, but one of the three species that have been classified in the genus is found to belong inside Sibbaldia, and it should be named Sibbaldia retusa (O.F. Muller) T. Erikss. Further study will show whether the remaining two species, Potentilla cuneifolia and P. miyabei, are more closely related to Sibbaldia, Sibbaldianthe, or if they make up a distinct lineage separate from either of these.
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