Linnaea is a plant genus in the family Caprifoliaceae (the honeysuckle family). Until 2013, the genus included a single species, Linnaea borealis. In 2013, on the basis of molecular phylogenetic evidence, the genus was expanded to include species formerly placed in Abelia (excluding section Zabelia), Diabelia, Dipelta, Kolkwitzia and Vesalea. However, this is rejected by the majority of subsequent scientific literature and flora.
Linnaea borealis was a favorite of Carl Linnaeus, founder of the modern system of binomial nomenclature, for whom the genus was named.
The genus Linnaea was first formally described by Carl Linnaeus. The name had been used earlier by the Dutch botanist Jan Frederik Gronovius, and was given in honour of Linnaeus. Linnaeus adopted the name in 1753 in Species Plantarum for the then sole species Linnaea borealis, because it was his favourite plant.[1]
Most botanists resisted placing other species in the genus, treating Linnaea as a monotypic genus. However, molecular phylogenetic studies from 2001 onwards showed that a number of genera were related to Linnaea (the “Linnaea clade”), although one of them, Abelia, was not monophyletic. In 2013, to maintain monophyletic genera, Maarten Christenhusz proposed merging Abelia (excluding section Zabelia), Diabelia, Dipelta, Kolkwitzia and Vesalea into Linnaea.[1] This proposal has been adopted by some secondary sources, including Plants of the World Online.[2][3] However, other sources prefer to maintain the segregation of Linnaeoideae into the traditional genera on grounds of morphology, biogeography and nomenclatural simplicity.[4][5][6]
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