Bartsia

Bartsia is a genus of flowering plants in the broomrape family, Orobanchaceae. Bartsia grows in damp places, such as marshes and wet meadows, in several parts of the west of England and Wales and in southwest Scotland. In Manitoba, Canada, the plant known as red bartsia (Odontites vernus, previously classified as Bartsia odontites) is considered a weed. Bartsia was named after Johann Bartsch (Latinized as Johannes Bartsius, 1709-1738), a botanist of Königsberg. The plant was named for him by his associate Carl Linnaeus. The phylogeny of the genera of Rhinantheae has been explored using molecular characters. Bartsia belongs to the core Rhinantheae. Bartsia sensu stricto (e.g. B. alpina) is the sister genus to Odontites, Bellardia, Tozzia, Hedbergia, and Euphrasia. In 1990, the genus was revised to contain 49 species; 45 of them are endemic to the Andes. The most familiar species might be the well-studied Bartsia alpina, which has a circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout northern regions of the Northern Hemisphere. There are also two African species. These two plants, B. alpina, and the many Andean species are three distinct lineages, making the genus polyphyletic.Accepted species names include: