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Kew Scientist
ISSN: 0967-8018
Autumn 2012 Issue 42
News from The Living Collections, The Herbarium and The Laboratories at Kew & Wakehurst Place
Flora of Tropical
East Africa
completed
H.Beentje
Aneilema brenanii (Commelinaceae) photographed in Kenya.
On 13 September 2012, scientists from
around the world came to Kew to celebrate
the completion of the Flora of Tropical East
Africa (FTEA). The event was marked by
publication of the final part and a symposium
with talks by contributors from Ethiopia,
Kenya, the UK, the USA, Sweden and Uganda.
(started 1966, restarted 2010; 3,300 species).
Taking overlap of species distributions
into consideration, these Floras provide
descriptions of some 60,000 species, or 20%
of known plant species. This represents a
major contribution to the requirement of the
Convention on Biological Diversity to have a
World Flora online by 2020.
Delegates at the symposium celebrated the
accomplishments of FTEA, but had an eye
on the future as well. Discussions were held
on future directions in Flora production,
strategies for working together on Flora
spinoff products, and collaborations on basic
science, fieldwork and conservation.
Contact: Dr Henk Beentje ([email protected])
• FTEA treats 11,657 species of angiosperms
(of which 2,820 are monocotyledons), 436
pteridophytes and 11 gymnosperms.
• 2,455 species are endemic to the FTEA area
(Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania); another 344
are mostly restricted to the area.
• 1,679 new species were described from the
FTEA area during the project – 14 % of the
entire flora.
1 RBG Kew
RBG Kew has a long tradition of co-ordinating
Floras, being responsible for Flora Australiensis
(1863–1878; 8,125 species), the Flora of
the British West Indian Islands (1864; 3,409
species), the Flora of Tropical Africa (1868–
1933; 13,500 species), the Flora of British
India (1872–1897; 15,900 species), the Flora
of Mauritius and the Seychelles (1877; 869
species), Flora Capensis (1896–1933; 11,705
species), the Flora of West Tropical Africa
(2nd ed., 1954–1972; 7,349 species) and the
Flora of Cyprus (1977–1985; 1,682 species).
Still in progress are Flora Zambesiaca (started
1960; 10,000 species) and Flora of Iraq
Delegates at the FTEA symposium celebrate
its completion.
RBG Kew
The FTEA project started in 1948. The East
African Herbarium in Nairobi was built to
house the plant specimens collected, and
during the project many botanists were
trained in field collecting techniques and in
writing taxonomic family treatments. The
first part appeared in 1952 and another
263 followed. These treat a total of 12,104
species, making FTEA the largest modern
tropical Flora ever completed.
Richard Deverell
appointed as Director
of RBG Kew
Richard Deverell succeeded Professor
Stephen Hopper as Director of the Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew, on 17 September
2012. Richard joined Kew after nearly 20
years at the BBC where he achieved great
success leading and managing new initiatives
in such important areas as BBC News, where
he ran the news and sport websites, and
BBC Children’s programmes, where he was
responsible for CBBC and CBeebies. He was
also the Chief Operating Officer for BBC
North and thus contributed to the delivery
of one of the BBC’s most important new
capital projects – the creation of Media
City in Salford. Richard is familiar with the
challenges and opportunities facing RBG
Kew as a result of his six years as a trustee
between 2003 and 2009 during which time,
amongst other things, he chaired the Board
Audit Committee.
Direction
Honours for Kew staff
Science at Kew
In June 2012, the services of two RBG Kew staff members were recognised in The Queen’s
Birthday Honours Lists. Professor Stephen Hopper, former Director of RBG Kew, was appointed
a ‘Companion of the Order of Australia’ within the Australian Honours System. In the UK
Honours List, Madeleine Groves from the Conventions and Policy Section was awarded an MBE
for ‘services to the protection of flora’.
I am delighted and
honoured to have
started in September
as Director at the Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Kew is a complex
organisation with
many diverse facets. It runs two beautiful
and popular gardens, it has incredible
collections of plants and fungi (both living
and preserved), it owns wonderful archives
of botanical art and books, it operates a
network of partnerships around the UK
and globally and it maintains magnificent
heritage buildings and monuments.
Effects of climate change
However, unarguably, Kew’s historic
foundation is its science. It started as a royal
scientific collection of rare and medicinal
plants in the mid-18th Century. These
collections were studied and expanded by
often heroic Victorian plant collectors taking
great personal risks to bring to England
exotic and gorgeous plants from some chilly
Himalayan pass or steamy jungle.
Today, Kew is known as much for its genetic
work and seed-banking as it is for its plant
and fungal collections. The organisation
has gained expertise in diverse areas, from
the germination and micro-propagation of
threatened species through to unravelling
the secrets of plant evolution. As we
face the challenges of habitat loss and a
changing climate, Kew’s science is more
relevant than ever before, helping to provide
plant-based solutions and essential expertise.
Kew’s science hinges around the
Herbarium, the Jodrell Laboratory and
the Seed Conservation Department, and
the impact of the work carried out is truly
global. For example, the Millennium Seed
Bank Partnership encompasses over 100
institutions in 54 countries, and this will
undoubtedly increase. Kew is a world-leader
in so many ways and continues to evolve,
embracing new technologies to widen our
reach and impact, as in the web-based
taxonomy of the eMonocots project. We
are also fortunate in that we have the ability
to engage and inspire the public through the
stories we can tell about our science.
What is clear to me is that the scientific
collections, combined with the quality,
originality and global impact of science
at Kew, are what make it unique. I am
committed to supporting Kew’s world-class
science and I am determined that on my
watch, it will not only continue but flourish.
Germination of alpines
Changing mutualism
Millennium Seed Bank Partnership scientists
at the Lombardy Seed Bank (University
of Pavia, Italy) and Wakehurst Place (RBG
Kew) are engaged in studies to understand
better the impact of climate warming on the
reproductive success of alpine plants. The
phenology of seed germination in eight alpine
species has been investigated by simulating
monthly changes in temperature recorded at
the glacial foreland and at an elevation 400 m
lower to reflect the temperatures these plants
would face if the climate warmed by 2.6°C (a
conservative estimate of the likely increase in
temperature during the 21st century). Previous
studies have tended to focus on the effect on
germination of warmer springs and summers
because most alpine plants are adapted for
spring germination. This study focused on the
impact of warmer autumns and revealed for
the first time that climate warming may result
in a shift from spring to autumn germination.
This shift means that seedlings could be more
vulnerable to frost damage during the winter
and may explain why plant populations tend
to migrate upwards as the climate warms. As
conditions at the leading edge become more
favourable for seedling recruitment and survival,
conditions at the trailing edge become less
so. Current experiments monitoring seedling
emergence and mortality in the field will test
this hypothesis. Ann. Bot. 110, 155 (2012).
Intimate partnerships between fungi and
plants were required for plants to colonise land
for the first time, and these partnerships are
still essential today for the establishment and
growth of most terrestrial plants. Plants pay
in carbon for fungi to scavenge minerals from
poor soils. Research supported by the Natural
Environment Research Council, undertaken in
a collaboration between molecular ecologist
Martin Bidartondo (Kew/Imperial) and
physiological ecologists at Sheffield University,
indicates that the balance of trade with fungi
in ancient and modern plant lineages changes
from low to high efficiency. This corresponds
with the drastic changes to the Earth’s
atmosphere and soils caused by the global
success of plant-fungal partnerships. Nature
Communications 3, 835 (2012).
Contact: Dr Robin Probert ([email protected])
2
Contact: Dr Martin Bidartondo
([email protected])
Fungal coils and branches within a plant cell.
J.G. Duckett
Richard Deverell, Director
Andrea Mondoni monitoring seedling emergence
at 2,500 m in the moraine of the glacier Dosdè,
Lombardy Alps, Italy.
Biogeography
Herbal medicine:
an evolutionary view
F. Forest
Mediterranean-type ecosystem
in the Cape of South Africa.
Mediterranean-type ecosystems
A study, led by Kew researchers in
collaboration with colleagues from the
Missouri Botanical Garden (USA), the South
African National Biodiversity Institute and the
Shivaji University (India), has shed new light on
the establishment and dynamics of the flora
of two Mediterranean-type ecosystems: the
Mediterranean Basin and the Cape of South
Africa. The researchers performed a case study
using Asparagaceae subfamily Scilloideae
(hyacinths), a group that harbours a similar
number of species in these two areas. They
found that the contrasting biogeographical
patterns in the two regions were shaped
largely by past climate change and
palaeogeography since the origin of the Old
World members of the group in sub-Saharan
Africa at the Palaeocene-Eocene boundary.
Whereas Cape diversity has been greatly
influenced by its relationship with sub-Saharan
Africa throughout the history of the subfamily,
the Mediterranean Basin had no connection
with the latter after the onset of the
Mediterranean climate in the region and the
aridification of the Sahara. The Mediterranean
Basin subsequently contributed significantly to
the diversity of neighbouring areas, whereas
the Cape can be seen as a biogeographical
cul-de-sac, with only a few dispersals towards
sub-Saharan Africa. The Kew team is currently
applying the framework developed with
Scilloideae to other groups to understand
further the evolutionary history of these two
important repositories of biodiversity. PLoS
ONE 7, e39377 (2012).
There is often scepticism surrounding
traditional herbal treatments, partly due
to scarcity of large-scale evidence of
efficacy of traditional medicine. A team of
researchers from Kew, the University of
Reading, Imperial College London and RBG
Edinburgh, in collaboration with colleagues
from Nepal and New Zealand, conducted
a phylogenetic study that provides support
for herbal remedies. The researchers
constructed a genus-level family tree
representing 20,000 plant species found
in three disparate regions (Nepal, New
Zealand and the Cape of South Africa) in
order to compare medicinal plants used in
these geographical areas. They found that
plants traditionally used to treat similar
health conditions came from the same
plant clusters across the three floras. These
shared phylogenetic patterns in traditional
herbal medicine were interpreted as
independent discovery of efficacy in these
plant groups. This was supported by the
finding that many plants used to produce
drugs come from these clusters highlighted
by traditional knowledge, suggesting that
plant bioactivity underlies traditional use.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109, 15835
(2012).
Contact: Dr Haris Saslis-Lagoudakis
([email protected])
Contact: Dr Sven Buerki ([email protected])
Medicinal plant
trader in KwaZuluNatal, South Africa.
Palms
G. Stafford
This framework was used to analyse the
phylogenetic foundations of palm distributions
across Malesia for a paper in the book
Biotic evolution and environmental change
in Southeast Asia. In a further study led by
Aarhus University, published in Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences of the
USA, the dated phylogenetic tree was used in
conjunction with geographical data for all palm
species to explore the phylogenetic structure of
W. Baker
A series of papers has established a general
framework for the biogeographical evolution
of palms. In companion papers in the Journal
of Biogeography, Bill Baker (Kew) and Thomas
Couvreur (IRD, Montpellier) present a dated
phylogenetic analysis of all palm genera with
ancestral area reconstructions and detailed
diversification analyses. They provide the first
methodologically rigorous hypothesis for
the evolution of palms in space and time,
highlighting the Cretaceous crown node
radiation of the family (ca. 100 Ma) in Laurasia
and the role of long-distance dispersal as a
major mechanism underpinning their global
distribution. Their diversification studies suggest
that the low species diversity of palms in Africa
(65 species) relative to other regions is explained
by increased in situ diversification in Asia, the
Americas, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean,
rather than Neogene extinctions in Africa as
suggested by other authors.
Bismarckia nobilis
palm assemblages worldwide and the imprints
of historical processes in the resultant patterns.
The results highlight the role of continental
isolation, climate change and habitat loss
throughout the Cenozoic for plant evolution
in the Tropics. J. Biogeogr., in press, doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2699.2012.02794.x & 2795.x;
Biotic evolution and environmental change in
Southeast Asia (eds. Gower et al.), Cambridge.
Univ. Press p 165 (2012); Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
USA, 109, 7379 (2012).
Contact: Dr Bill Baker ([email protected])
3
Trees of Uganda
A new book, Conservation Checklist of
the Trees of Uganda (by J. Kalema & H.
Beentje; Kew Publishing, 2012; ISBN
9781842463772; £40), provides names,
synonomy and conservation assessments
for over 800 tree species of Uganda.
‘Vulnerable’ species are each given a fullpage treatment that includes
a description, illustration,
distribution map, graph on
flowering/fruiting times and
notes on threats and habitat.
This is the first publication of
its kind for Uganda.
www.kewbooks.com
Left: Directors of botanical gardens
and BGCI signing the Ecological
Restoration Alliance MoU at Kew.
Left to right: Andrew Vovides
(Clavijero), Guido Gelli (Rio), Stephen
Hopper (Kew), Mark Nicholson
(Brackenhurst), Sara Oldfield (BGCI)
and Mark Webb (Kings Park).
Partnerships for restoration
Andrew McRobb/RBG Kew
Below: Delegates at a
forestry workshop in
Nairobi propose the
Forest Landscape Africa
consortium.
Global restoration initiative
projects will draw on the proven restoration
knowledge, capacity and experience of the
allied botanic gardens, arboreta and seed
banks. The places to be targeted include
tropical forests, prairies, wild places within
cities, wetlands and coastal sites – ecosystems
that are under threat and no longer able to
provide essential services and resources for
sustaining human livelihoods and biodiversity.
The first funding for an Ecological Restoration
Alliance project has been granted by the
Ashden Trust (a Sainsbury Family Charitable
Trust focusing on climate change, sustainable
development, or improving the quality of life
in poorer communities). They are supporting
a three-year project that unites Brackenhurst
and Tooro gardens to conserve endangered
tree species and restore upland forests in
Kenya and Uganda, respectively. A feature
of the project, coordinated by BGCI, will be
to engage the private sector so as to share
findings and promote the reintroduction of
endangered species in degraded ecosystems,
such as selectively logged forests. A similar
project is now being planned for Latin
America, with Kew joining three other gardens
to improve watersheds with native tree
species. Cons. Biol. 25, 265 (2011)
The Alliance has ambitious aims, with a
plan to restore 100 damaged, degraded
or destroyed ecosystems. Restoration
Contact: Dr Bruce Pavlik ([email protected])
Wildflower seed quality
B. Pavlik
A 10 year-old, species-rich upland
forest restored at Brackenhurst
Botanic Garden, Kenya.
Georgian plants propagation
Seed scientists and horticulturists from Kew
and the National Botanic Garden of Georgia
are developing propagation protocols for
five highly threatened Georgian plants that
have proved problematic to grow from seed,
particularly stored seed. Cyclamen colchicum,
Galanthus kemulariae, Campanula kachethica,
Pulsatilla georgica and Paeonia steveniana are
known from just a few sites and populations
are declining. The protocols will provide a
foundation for any future activities to reintroduce the species to historical sites.
Contact: Clare Trivedi ([email protected])
Joel Rowlands separating seed
from a commercial wildflower mix.
4 ICRAF
Botanic gardens on six continents signed
an historic agreement on 23 May 2012.
Responding to a United Nations target to
restore at least 15 percent of the world’s
damaged ecosystems by 2020, the following
institutions have agreed to work together
to form the new Ecological Restoration
Alliance: RBG Kew, RBG Edinburgh, The Eden
Project (UK), Kings Park and Botanic Garden
(Australia), RBG Canada, National Tropical
Botanical Garden (USA), Missouri Botanical
Garden, Brackenhurst Botanic Garden (Kenya),
Rio de Janeiro Botanic Garden, Jardín Botánico
Francisco Javier Clavijero (Mexico), RBG
Jordan, Korea National Arboretum, South
China Botanical Garden and Botanic Gardens
Conservation International. Other botanical
gardens in China, South Africa, UK, USA
and Venezuela are committed to joining or
supporting the Alliance.
Forest Landscape Africa
A technical consortium, Forest Landscape
Africa, has been proposed by delegates at a
workshop organised by the Millennium Seed
Bank Partnership (MSBP), held at the World
Agroforestry Centre (Nairobi; Dec 2011).
The workshop assessed constraints and
opportunities for public sector forestry in Africa
in addressing issues such as deforestation, food
security and climate change. It was attended
by forestry institute representatives from eleven
African countries, the World Agro-forestry
Centre (ICRAF), FAO (Forestry Department),
Forest & Landscape Denmark, UNEP, DFID
and others. Forest Landscape Africa builds on
decades of bilateral relationships and creates
opportunities to address technical constraints
in large-scale afforestation for ecosystem
services, carbon capture, biodiversity offsets
and sustainable livelihoods. The MSBP currently
stores seed collections from over 10,200
woody species.
Contact: Dr Moctar Sacande ([email protected])
Wildflower seed supplied by five commercial
producers has been found to vary in quantity
and quality. This has implications for consumers
wishing to use seed to establish wildflowers
on their property. The study, conducted by the
UK Native Seed Hub (UKNSH) at Wakehurst
Place, found all but one single-species packets
tested were correctly named, but descriptions of
species present in mixed packets were frequently
inaccurate. Both single and mixed-species packets
varied considerably in their germinability and
storage moisture. The results, presented at the 8th
European Conference on Ecological Restoration
( eské Budéjovice; 9-14 September 2012), provide
further evidence that technical assistance provided
by the UKNSH can support native seed production
and ensure high-quality seed is available for
conservation projects in the UK. The UKNSH is
funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
Contact: Ted Chapman ([email protected])
New web resources
Threatened plants
100 most threatened
Of the 25 plants listed in Priceless or
Worthless, a list of the 100 most threatened
animals, plants and fungi (IUCN/ZSL; Sept.
2012), Kew botanists were involved with the
description of three: Dendrophylax fawcettii,
Erythrina schliebenii and Tahina spectabilis. In
1971, former Kew botanist Bernard Verdourt
described the legume E. schliebenii in FTEA
from the only known collections made at
a single site in Tanzania in the 1930s. The
species was considered ‘Extinct’ following
clearance of the site for agriculture, but it
was rediscovered in a hitherto unknown
coastal forest near Kilwa in 2001, and recollected in 2011. At Kew these collections
were compared with existing material. Fewer
than 50 individuals survive. J. East African
Nat. Hist. 100, 133 (2011).
The GeoCAT map editor, illustrating multiple data sources and the metadata
window allowing users to view the underlying data for each point.
GeoCAT – a tool for rapid Red List assessments
Contact: Dr Barbara Mackinder ([email protected])
New most threatened orchid?
Ornithochilus cacharensis, a new species
of orchid from Assam (India) described
by botanists from India and Kew, was
published too late to be consideration for
the top 100 most threatened list. It may
well be a candidate as only one individual
has so far been discovered. The species has
attractive bright red-purple flowers and is
related to the moth orchids (Phalaenopsis
species) that are widely grown as house
plants. Kew Bull. 67, 1 (2012).
Contact: André Schuiteman ([email protected])
Mediterranean seeds
Saponaria sicula
The GIS Unit at Kew has released a new online
tool to help with Red List assessments. GeoCAT
(the Geospatial Conservation Assessment
Tool) is designed to produce rapid specieslevel conservation assessments based on IUCN
Red List Categories and Criteria. GeoCAT is
an update from the Conservation Assessment
Tools (CAT) extension for ArcView GIS released
previously (see Kew Scientist issue 33; April
2008). The updated tool is now web-based
and is freely available at http://geocat.kew.org/
making it more accessible to Kew’s partners
and collaborators around the world. The tool
also uses the Google Maps environment
making it familiar and easy to use. A powerful
extension of the tool is a link to the specimen
data repository of GBIF (Global Biodiversity
Information Facility), giving access to millions of
data points supplied by institutions across the
world. The tool uses specimen or observation
data to calculate a preliminary assessment
based on geographical measures used in the
IUCN criteria. GeoCAT is a first step toward
streamlining the Red List process.
eMonocot portal
Economic Botany Collection
G. P. Giusso
The flora of the islands in the Mediterranean
is rich in endemic species, with many
restricted to individual islands, and requires
urgent conservation measures. An initiative
‘Ensuring the survival of endangered plants
in the Mediterranean’, led by Kew and six
conservation organizations from Crete,
Corsica, Cyprus, Mallorca, Sardinia, and
Sicily, began in October 2011 to ensure
the survival of 900 plant species in six
Mediterranean islands through ex situ
conservation measures. During the first year,
seeds were collected from 434 taxa, mostly
endemic, rare, threatened or protected. The
seeds were stored in local seed bank facilities
of the six islands with back-up collections at
the Millennium Seed Bank. A workshop will
take place in the Orto Botanico di Catania
(Sicily) on 18–20 April 2013. The project is
funded mainly by the MAVA Foundation
with the support of other co-funders, like
Obra Social Sa Nostra (Balearic Islands) and
the University of Cagliari.
Contact: Teresa Gil Gil ([email protected])
www.medislandplant.eu/
eMonocot is a distributed system of online
biodiversity information resources for
monocotyledons. A new portal for eMonocot
aggregates these resources providing
identification resources and information across
all monocot plant families. A beta version of the
portal became publicly available in October 2012
and already provides taxon pages for the ca.
70,000 species accepted by the World Checklist
of Selected Plant Families, interactive multiaccess keys and image galleries. Further content,
functionality and improvements will be added
over the next 12 months. The project is funded
by the Natural Environment Research Council,
via a consortium grant to RBG Kew, Oxford
University and the Natural History Museum.
www.emonocot.org
Kew Archives
Kew’s Archive Catalogue was made available
on-line in April 2012. About 40 collections
(2,500 records) of individuals have been
added so far, including the papers of Sir
William and Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir Joseph
Banks and Marianne North. This represents
about 10% of the total holdings.
www.calmview.eu/kew/calmview/
5 Contact: Steve Bachman ([email protected])
The complete catalogue of the 85,000
specimens in Kew’s Economic Botany Collection
was made available on-line in May 2012. The
Economic Botany Collection covers plant raw
materials and artefacts from around the world,
dating from ancient Egyptian times to the
present. It is a rich resource for subjects such
as history, anthropology, plant taxonomy and
conservation, chemistry and DNA, and is a key
repository for Kew’s history.
http://apps.kew.org/ecbot/search
George Gardner
Following long-term research by Nicholas Hind
(Kew), a new web resource is now available on
the 19th century botanist and traveller, George
Gardner. This provides a transcription of Kew’s
manuscript copy of his Catalogue of Brazilian
Plants, a database of his collections (based on
the Catalogue, the Hiern list of determinations
of the collections at the Natural History Museum
and Kew, and current determinations sourced
through virtual herbaria and determinations
lists), a diary of Gardner’s travel itinerary (with
reference to his account in Travels in the Interior
of Brazil), a digital copy of the Medicinal &
Economical plants ... from his Catalogue, a list
of published references connected with his
itinerary, and a near-exhaustive list of references
on, by or concerning George Gardner and his
collections.
www.kew.org/science/tropamerica/gardner/
Orchid community
agree name changes in
Oncidium
Towards monophyly
The monumental Genera Orchidacearum
series depends on extensive analyses of DNA
sequence data to provide guidance about how
to classify orchids in an appropriate manner.
A recent paper in the Botanical Journal of the
Linnean Society is a good example of the scale
and impact of such studies.
M.S.Vorontsova
The name of Pennisetum advena Wipff & Veldkamp
in the traditional classification has been changed to
Cenchrus advena (Wipff & Veldkamp) Morrone in
the phylogenetic classification.
One in five plant species to be renamed?
Classifications are constantly changing to
keep up to date with increasing knowledge.
We are currently in a period of faster
change as plant classification is realigned
into monophyletic groups following the
widespread availability of DNA sequence data.
But how many species change their name as a
classification is updated?
conclusions from all published phylogenetic
reconstructions. Out of 11,500 accepted grass
species, 1,179 (about 10%) have been moved
to a different genus to follow monophyletic
groups. Of course the classification is still
changing, and some parts of the grass family
are more thoroughly studied than others. A
subset of species in the well known tribes
Paniceae and Paspaleae was also analysed.
Out of 2,070 species in Paniceae and
Paspaleae, 362 (17%) moved to a different
genus. If other plant families are similar to the
grasses, then the transition from a traditional
to a phylogenetic classification system is
expected to lead to name changes in around
10-20% of species. Taxon 61, 735 (2012).
It has not been possible to quantify this
up to now, but name database projects
in the grasses (Poaceae) have enabled a
direct comparison between a ‘traditional’
classification system and a ‘phylogenetic’ one.
GrassBase (www.kew.org/data/grassbase/)
contains a list of all species of Poaceae as
they were classified in 1986. GrassWorld
(http://grassworld.myspecies.info) is a
copy of GrassBase updated to incorporate
Contact: Dr Maria Vorontsova ([email protected])
Classification of Annonaceae
As these results required substantial
rearrangements of generic boundaries in this
group of horticulturally significant taxa, the
proposed changes were reviewed by the Royal
Horticultural Society’s taxonomy subcommittee
of the Orchid Committee. After taking
submissions from people supporting and
opposing these changes, the subcommittee
voted to support the changes proposed in
Genera Orchidacearum, and these are now
taken up by the Royal Horticultural Society
system, the World Checklist of Monocots
(produced at RBG Kew and used in the RBG
Kew living collections and other databases)
and the American Orchid Society. This is an
example of how there is now a formal system
of recognised taxonomy in many areas of
science and horticulture. Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 168,
117 (2012).
Contact: Prof. Mark Chase ([email protected])
Society on Annonaceae, an international
team of researchers compiled the largest,
most representative, molecular dataset on
Annonaceae and presented a corresponding
classification. The authors analysed DNA
sequences of up to eight plastid markers from
193 members of Annonaceae plus outgroups
and found that the family was composed of
four major clades, which they give the rank
of subfamily: Annonoideae (with amended
circumscription) and three new subfamilies
Anaxagoreoideae, Ambavioideae and
Malmeoideae. In Annonoideae, seven tribes
are recognized, one of which is described
as new. In Malmeoideae, seven tribes are
recognized, six of which are newly described.
Monophyly is the only characteristic that the
subfamilies have in common, and currently
it is challenging to identify diagnostic
morphological characters, although many
characters await evaluation. Bot. J. Linn. Soc.
169, 5 (2012).
Contact: Prof. Mark Chase ([email protected])
6
Oncidium fuscatum
M. Chase
Annonaceae (with ca. 2,400 species in 108
genera) are the largest family of Magnoliales.
In spite of their great floristic importance
and the long-standing interest in their
systematics, no authoritative classification had
been published in light of recent molecular
phylogenetic analyses. For a special issue
of the Botanical Journal of the Linnean
P. Gasson
Guatteria species (Annonaceae).
The dataset collected included five DNA
regions and 736 accessions (590 species)
covering 98% of the genera ascribed to the
subtribe Oncidiinae (Neotropical; 1600 species).
The results demonstrated that Oncidium, the
largest genus of the subtribe, was polyphyletic.
This result was due to multiple parallel shifts
in pollination to oil-collecting bees from other
sorts of pollination systems. These species all
mimic yellow-flowered members of the family
Malpighiaceae and have a unique absorbance
in the UV-green range.
Legume Phylogeny
Working Group
Legumes
The recently-formed international Legume
Phylogeny Working Group (LPWG) is working
towards a phylogenetic classification of the
family. New phylogenetic analyses have
been carried out by the ‘Arizona’ group of
the LPWG (Martin Wojciechowski, Michael
Sanderson, Shelley McMahon and Kelly Steele).
An overview paper arising from the legume
symposium at the 2011 International Botanical
Congress in Melbourne that focused on these
analyses has been submitted to Taxon. The
paper outlines where we are along the road
to understanding phylogenetic relationships
across legumes and therefore how far there
is to go before a new phylogenetically based
classification might be proposed. This paper will
be published under LPWG authorship.
Contact: Dr Gwilym Lewis ([email protected])
J. Wieringa
Convergent evolution of
papilionate flowers
Hymenostegia robusta, a new species of tropical legume
tree recently described from Gabon.
Legume diversity patterns in West Central Africa
The legumes and milkworts (Polygalaceae) both
include many species with pea-like (papilionate
or keeled) flowers. Both families belong in
the angiosperm order Fabales, together with
two relatively small families, Quillajaceae and
Surianaceae. In collaborative research between
Kew and the University of Reading, Paula
Rudall, Angélica Bello and Julie Hawkins used
a combination of molecular and morphological
data to investigate the relationships between
these four families, providing a framework to
explore the evolution of the unusual papilionate
flower morphology. The results showed that the
flower morphologies of legumes and milkworts
are convergent, despite several remarkable
similarities between them. In its diverse forms,
the papilionate flower represents an adaptive
syndrome in which the pollination organs are
completely hidden prior to mechanical release
by a pollinating insect. Cladistics 28, 393 (2012).
West Central Africa is the area of greatest
biodiversity within tropical Africa where
legumes are the dominant flowering plant
family both in terms of species richness and
ecological importance. Efforts to conserve
biodiversity, based on the herbarium
collections at RBG Kew and in other
international herbaria, are multifaceted.
Baseline diversity taxonomic research papers
continue to be published. In 2012, four
new legume tree species (Gilbertiodendron
newberyi, G. tonkolili, Hymenostegia elegans
and H. robusta) were described by Kew’s
legume specialists and international coauthors. This work is complemented by studies
using more recently developed methodologies
such as the use of species distribution models
(SDMs). A newly published study, led by
Manuel de la Estrella (Universidad de Córdoba,
Spain), applied SDM methodology to a merged
dataset of legume herbarium records from
Cameroon (RBG Kew), Gabon (Wageningen
University, Netherlands) and Equatorial Guinea
(Real Jardín Botánico, Madrid). Legume species
richness patterns in these countries were
inferred from the full dataset, the conventional
SDM approach, and additionally and
innovatively in datasets partitioned according
to five vegetation types. Consequently, the
study was able to predict areas of potential
species richness for conservation planning in
Afromontane vegetation, coastal vegetation,
non-flooded forest, open formations and
riverine forest. PLoS ONE 7, e41526 (2012).
Contact: Dr Barbara Mackinder ([email protected])
Lonchocarpus phylogeny
Contact: Dr Paula Rudall ([email protected])
Muellera obtusa in Bahia, Brazil.
FZ Leguminosae completed
RBG Kew
The molecular results reveal that Lonchocarpus
s.s. originated about 8.7 Ma in Central America,
whereas Dahlstedtia and Muellera both arose in
South America, 6.3 Ma and 8 Ma, respectively.
At least three migration events of Lonchocarpus
have occurred from Central to South America
and one to Africa. Taxon, 61, 93 (2012).
The final Part 4 of the seven-part Volume
3 (Leguminosae) for Flora Zambesiaca was
published in October 2012. In the part, Brian
Schrire treats Cyamopsis (3 spp.), Indigastrum
(2 spp. + 3 infrasp.), Microcharis (11 spp.),
Rhynchotropis (2 spp.) and Indigofera (160 spp.
+ 29 infrasp.), describing one new subsection,
10 new species and 11 new infraspecific taxa.
Contact: Dr Gwilym Lewis ([email protected])
Contact: Dr Brian Schrire ([email protected])
7 G. Lewis
Molecular and morphological analyses of
Lonchocarpus s.l. have been published in
Taxon and demonstrated that the genus, as
traditionally circumscribed, is polyphyletic and
that three well-supported clades can be referred
to Lonchocarpus s.s., Dahlstedtia and Muellera.
These three genera have been recircumscribed
and Dahlstedtia has increased in size from two
to 16 species, and Muellera from two to 32
species (including additional new combinations
published by M. Sousa in a more recent work).
The two monospecific genera Bergeronia
and Margaritolobium are synonymised under
Muellera.
Scanning electron micrograph of dissected
flower bud of Polygala violacea.
Stimulating Plants
Betel nut palm taxonomy
G
RB
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Ke
Chemistry of
coffee-leaf tea
Contact: Dr Bill Baker ([email protected])
Nicotiana origins
Samples of coffee-leaf tea in Kew’s Economic
Botany Collection.
coffee leaves), and beverages and masticatory
products made from the fleshy parts of
coffee fruits, are supported by the phenolic
quantification. Chlorogenic acids are powerful
antioxidants and mangiferin has numerous
pharmacological properties. Ann. Bot. 110,
595 (2012).
Contact: Dr Aaron Davis ([email protected])
fruits of Pollia condensata (Commelinaceae)
is more intense than that of any previously
described biological material. Using transmission
electron microscopy at Kew combined with
optical imaging and spectroscopy at Cambridge
University, a recent study has demonstrated that
the intense coloration in Pollia fruits is caused by
helicoidally stacked cellulose microfibrils in the
cell walls of the fruit wall. This particular type
of structural colour has rarely been reported in
plants, though it occurs relatively commonly in
animals. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust and
with input from international collaborators,
a joint research programme is currently
investigating the biological and physical bases
of several different types of structural colour in
plants. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109, 15712
(2012).
Molecular phylogenetic studies have confirmed
the evolutionary origin of many hybrid
Nicotiana species, but that of the allopolyploid
section Suaveolentes has proved difficult to
establish. Nicotiana section Suaveolentes is the
largest group of polyploids within the genus
and the only section to have a native range
outside of the Americas. Scientists from Kew,
Queen Mary (University of London) and the
Natural History Museum (London) have used
data from multiple regions of the plastid and
nuclear genomes to reveal that past gene
flow at the diploid level may explain why the
parental progenitors of section Suaveolentes
have been so difficult to identify. Although the
section Sylvestres lineage was clearly identified
as the paternal genome donor, the maternal
genome appears to contain a mixture of genes
from two different diploid sections suggesting
that the donor was itself a hybrid or contained
genes introgressed from another diploid
species. Evolution, in press, doi:10.1111/
j.1558-5646.2012.01748.x.
Contact: Dr Paula Rudall ([email protected])
Contact: Dr Laura Kelly ([email protected])
The most intense colour blue in the plant kingdom?
Intensely coloured blue
fruits of Pollia condensata.
Colour is important to plants for various
reasons. In leaves of some plants, bright
coloration can signal a warning to herbivorous
animals. Brightly coloured flowers can readily
attract potential pollinators such as insects, and
intense coloration in fruits can attract a bird
or animal that could act as a dispersal agent.
Colour that is pigment-based is sometimes
enhanced by structural means to increase gloss
or iridescence. For example, the blue colour of
Editorial advisory team
Kew Scientist
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB.
Tel: +44 (0)20 8332 5000
Fax: +44 (0)20 8332 5310
Internet: www.kew.org
Nicotiana cavicola (section Suaveolentes)
growing on Mount Luke, Western Australia.
Editor Production Editor
Design
Dr M. Fay
Dr G. Kite
Design & Photography, RBG Kew
Dr W. Baker, Dr C. Clennett, Dr C. Clubbe, Dr T. Entwisle,
Dr F. Forest, P. Griffiths, Dr R. de Kok, Dr G. Lewis, N. McGough,
M. Ramsay, N. Rothwell, Dr P. Rudall, Prof. M. Simmonds,
Dr P. Toorop, R. Wilford
Published in Spring and Autumn.
8
S. Hopper
The phenolic composition
of coffee (Coffea) leaves
has been studied in detail
in research led by Claudine
Campa (IRD, Montpellier,
France), with colleagues
in France, Madagascar
and the UK (Aaron Davis,
Kew). Concentrations of
hydroxycinnamic acid esters
(HCEs) and mangiferin were
measured for 23 species native
to Africa or Madagascar. HCEs
are commonly grouped under the
generic name of chlorogenic acids;
mangiferin, a C-glucosylxanthone,
was first isolated from mangoes
(Mangifera indica). Mangiferin
content and tissue localization were
compared in leaves and fruits of
C. pseudozanguebariae, C. arabica
(Arabica coffee) and C. canephora
(robusta coffee). The study revealed
that seven of the 23 species accumulated
mangiferin in their leaves. Mangiferin leafaccumulating species also contain mangiferin
in the fruits, but only in the outer (sporophytic)
parts and not in the coffee beans. Analyses
of mangiferin and HCE content showed good
agreement with coffee species delimitation
and provided independent support for various
coffee lineages, as proposed by molecular
phylogenetic analyses. The potential health
benefits of coffee-leaf tea (a ‘tea’ made from
Following the successful defence of his PhD,
jointly supervised at Institut Pertanian Bogor,
Herbarium Bogoriense (Indonesia) and Kew,
Charlie Heatubun has published a monograph
of the betel nut genus Areca in eastern
Malesia. The account substantially reduces the
number of species previously recognised in the
region to five and also includes a treatment of
the betel nut palm itself, Areca catechu. The
wild distribution of this species is not known
as it has been dispersed by humans due to its
wide use as narcotic – an estimated 200–400
million people use betel nut as a stimulant
globally. The new account of A. catechu
clears up the complex nomenclature of the
species, reducing many names into synonymy.
In a second publication in Phytotaxa, Charlie
described seven new species of Areca from the
region to the west of Wallace’s line, including
the endangered A. gurita, named using
the Indonesian word for octopus due to its
strange inflorescence morphology, and a new
rheophytic species from Cambodia, A. riparia.
Phytotaxa 28, 6 (2011); Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 168,
147 (2012).