Abstract:

 While we were investigating the world Veroniceae we found  the  genus  Wulfenia  Jacq.

discontinuously distributing. W. carinthiaca and W. baldaccii are found in south-eastern Europe

and W. orientalis in Turkey and Lebanon, whereas W. amherstiana is a native of W. Hima-

laya. Such a pattern of distribution, discontinuous between the Mediterranean and W. Himala-

ya, as far as we know, is hardly frequent. After comparing carefully the specimens from these

two places and examining their pollen grains we got the impression that the difference between

the plants occuring near the Mediterranean and those in Himalaya is so big that they should

no longer be placed in the same genus. It would be necessary, therefore, to describe W. amhe-

rstiana as a new and separate genus (we name it Wulfeniopsis Hong). Its corolla is not  2-

lipped, but with four lobes (not five) lanceolate, acuminate and erect (not spreading).  The

stigma is very small, not 2-lobed. Pollen grains are much smaller, with colpi more narrow and

lacking of membranes, and their exines are smooth (not reticulate). It’s  chromosome number

is 2n = 16 (not 18).