Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of the medicinal herb Veronica polita Fr. (Lamiales: Plantaginaceae)

Veronica polita Fr. (synonym: Veronica didyma Ten.), an annual herbaceous species with high medicinal values, is originally from Southwest Asia but has been naturalized widely in many regions of the world. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome of V. polita was determined to be 150,191 bp long with a typical quadripartite structure. It encodes a panel of 114 genes with 18 of them being completely or partially duplicated and 19 of them possessing one or two introns. The phylogenetic analysis appeared to support the tribal-level taxonomy of the family Plantaginaceae, and revealed that V. polita was most closely related to the congener V. persica.