Already Härle (1932) showed that many species within Veronica subgenus Pseudolysimachium can hybridise. Also more recent studies based on AFLP and classical morphometric analyses from Bardy et al. (2011) and Next-Gen ITS-sequencing from Kosachev et al. (2016) revealed that species boundaries are not clearly defined. Especially the widespread species V. spicata seems to hybridise with several other species from this subgenus. At this point I will start to examine exemplarily the transition between V. spicata and V. orchidea with Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS). Further, more detailed investigations will focus on the high diversity of “microspecies” described in the Ukraine. Therefore, if available, type material shall be included in the molecular and geomorphometric analyses. The museomics approach ought to be extended and peak in the project where we try to reinvestigate the species identities of V. spicata and V. longifolia in a time-series of herbarium material from Sweden (back to Linne’s days) where both species have originally been described.

The purpose of this is to test whether Linne’s species descriptions of V. spicata and V. longifolia might be based on hybrids and not typical specimens. Moreover, in this project(s) we want to discuss “best-practises” in handling museum (type) material for molecular studies, also the impact of describing hybrids as species and whether epi-types are desirable for molecular studies in the future.