''Muehlbergella'' is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the family

Campanulaceae The family Campanulaceae (also bellflower family), of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky sap. Among them are several familiar garden plants bel ...

. It contains a single species, ''Muehlbergella oweriniana''. It is

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

Distribution

The species is endemic to an area of ~40 km² in

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; ; ), officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Fede ...

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

, where it grows between cracks and calcareous rocky ground.

Taxonomy

The genus and species were both described by Heinrich Feer and published in ''Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie'' Vol.12 (Issue 5) on pages 615–616 in 1890. The genus name of ''Muehlbergella'' is in honour of Friedrich Mühlberg (1840–1915), a Swiss geologist. The Latin

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

of ''oweriniana'' refers to the original collector, Alexander Pavlovic Owerin, a Russian military topographer, florist, and botanical collector. Owerin had collected plants from the mountains of Dagestan (1860–61) and other places in the Caucasus.

References

Campanuloideae Campanulaceae genera Monotypic Campanulaceae genera Flora of the North Caucasus Endemic flora of the Caucasus Plants described in 1867 {{Campanulaceae-stub