A monograph of the genus Polylepis (Rosaceae) Author Boza Espinoza, Tatiana Erika https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9925-1795 Institute for Nature, Earth and Energy (INTE), Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru (PUCP), Av. Universitaria 1801, Lima 15088, Peru tatianaerika@gmail.com Author Kessler, Michael https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4612-9937 Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, Zollikerstrasse 107, CH- 8008 Zurich, Switzerland text PhytoKeys 2022 2022-08-01 203 1 274 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.203.83529 journal article http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.203.83529 1314-2003-203-1 001CD6EE01E8575F81AC9EFDD0599077 Section Subsericantes T.Boza & M.Kessler sect. nov. Diagnosis. Trees; 1 lateral leaflet pair; lower leaflet surfaces densely villous or strigose; fruits with 3-4 irregular flattened ridges with a series of spines, densely pilose. Type . Polylepis subsericans J.F. Macbr. Notes. The sectional epithet Subsericantes is a plural adjective agreeing in gender with Polylepis . Section Polylepis Subsericantes contains species with pilose or strigose lower leaflet surfaces, one lateral leaflet pair and densely pilose fruits with 3-4 irregular flattened ridges bearing a series of spines. This peculiar combination of characters, which combines traits of sections Sericeae and Incanaee , was already noted by Simpson (1979) . Schmidt-Lebuhn et al. (2006a) recovered the species P. subsericans as sister to those here placed in section Polylepis Incanaee . Given their distinctness, we place this species and two closely related ones in a separate section. All three species only occur in central Peru, where they occupy parapatric ranges. Table 7 provides an overview of the arrangement of the taxa by different authors. Table 7. Alignment of the taxa of the Polylepis sect. Subsericantes according to Bitter (1911) , Simpson (1979) , Segovia et al. (2018) and the present study.

Bitter (1911)	Simpson (1979)	Segovia et al. (2018)	This study
P. subsericans	P. subsericans	P. subsericans	P. subsericans
P. incana		P. flavipila	P. flavipila
			P. pilosissima

Climatic niches in Polylepis sect. Subsericantes Climatic niches among the species of this section do not differ with respect to the temperature under which they grow, but have clear differences with respect to mean annual rainfall: Polylepis subsericans grows under the most humid conditions, P. flavipila has an intermediate position and P. pilosissima grows under the most arid conditions (Fig. 62 ).