G. Wagenitz’s scientific contributions

... One example for such a species more or less restricted in its main continuous geographic range to the foreststeppe zone is Veronica spicata , which is distributed from Central Europe (with scattered occurrences west to the British Isles) to the Altay region. South of the forest-steppe it is found only in sheltered areas of the steppe, where it is mostly replaced by related species, whereas in the north it only occurs in azonal open vegetation, especially in dry, calcareous grasslands and among open rocky outcrops of the forest zone up to southern Scandinavia (Meusel et al. 1978). Partly due to the wide distribution, partly due to hybridization with congeneric species,V. ...

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Veronica paczoskiana is a pine forest ecotype of V. spicata that evolved independently in forest-steppes of Ukraine and the Altay region.