Science Enabled by Specimen Data
Zhang, M., R. Wei, Q. Xiang, A. Ebihara, and X. Zhang. 2021. Integrative taxonomy of the Selaginella helvetica group based on morphological, molecular and ecological data. TAXON 70: 1163–1187. https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12565
The Eurasian and Mediterranean Selaginella helvetica group is one of the taxonomically challenging groups in the cosmopolitan lycophyte genus Selaginella. Species of the S. helvetica group are all small plants with lax strobili composed of more or less isomorphic sporophylls (isosporophylls) that ar…
Iannella, M., P. D’Alessandro, W. De Simone, and M. Biondi. 2021. Habitat Specificity, Host Plants and Areas of Endemism for the Genera-Group Blepharida s.l. in the Afrotropical Region (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae, Alticini). Insects 12: 299. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12040299
The genus Calotheca Heyden (Chrysomelidae) is mainly distributed in the eastern and southern parts of sub-Saharan Africa, with some extensions northward, while Blepharidina Bechyné occurs in the intertropical zone of Africa, with two subgenera, Blepharidina s. str. and Blepharidina(Afroblepharida) B…
Deanna, R., P. Wilf, and M. A. Gandolfo. 2020. New physaloid fruit‐fossil species from early Eocene South America. American Journal of Botany 107: 1749–1762. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1565
Premise: Solanaceae is a scientifically and economically important angiosperm family with a minimal fossil record and an intriguing early evolutionary history. Here, we report a newly discovered fossil lantern fruit with a suite of features characteristic of Physalideae within Solanaceae. The fossil…
Iqbal, I., A. Shabbir, K. Shabbir, M. Barkworth, F. Bareen, and S. Khan. 2020. Evolvulus nummularius (L.) L. (Convolvulaceae): a new alien plant record for Pakistan. BioInvasions Records 9: 702–711. https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2020.9.4.04
Evolvulus nummularius (L.) L., a member of the Convolvulaceae, is native to Mexico and South America but nowadays grows around the world in many tropical and subtropical regions. Its presence in Pakistan, where it has become naturalized, is reported here for the first time. It was first discovered i…
Rozefelds, A. C., G. Stull, P. Hayes, and D. R. Greenwood. 2020. The fossil record of Icacinaceae in Australia supports long-standing Palaeo-Antarctic rainforest connections in southern high latitudes. Historical Biology 33: 2854–2864. https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2020.1832089
Fossil fruits of Icacinaceae are recorded from two Cenozoic sites in Australia, at Launceston in northern Tasmania and the Poole Creek palaeochannel in northern South Australia, representing the first report of fossil Icacinaceae from Australia. The Launceston material includes two endocarps with br…
Cross, A. T., T. A. Krueger, P. M. Gonella, A. S. Robinson, and A. S. Fleischmann. 2020. Conservation of carnivorous plants in the age of extinction. Global Ecology and Conservation 24: e01272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01272
Carnivorous plants (CPs)—those possessing specific strategies to attract, capture and kill animal prey and obtain nutrition through the absorption of their biomass—are harbingers of anthropogenic degradation and destruction of ecosystems. CPs exhibit highly specialised and often very sensitive ecolo…
Brightly, W. H., S. E. Hartley, C. P. Osborne, K. J. Simpson, and C. A. E. Strömberg. 2020. High silicon concentrations in grasses are linked to environmental conditions and not associated with C 4 photosynthesis. Global Change Biology 26: 7128–7143. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15343
The uptake and deposition of silicon (Si) as silica phytoliths is common among land plants and is associated with a variety of functions. Among these, herbivore defense has received significant attention, particularly with regards to grasses and grasslands. Grasses are well known for their high sili…
Lindelof, K., J. A. Lindo, W. Zhou, X. Ji, and Q. (Jenny) Xiang. 2020. Phylogenomics, biogeography, and evolution of the blue‐ or white‐fruited dogwoods (Cornus)—Insights into morphological and ecological niche divergence following intercontinental geographic isolation. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 58: 604–645. https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12676
The eastern Asian (EA)–eastern North American (ENA) floristic disjunction represents a major pattern of phytogeography of the Northern Hemisphere. Despite 20 years of studies dedicated to identification of taxa that display this disjunct pattern, its origin and evolution remain an open question, esp…
Frankiewicz, K. E., J. H. Chau, and A. A. Oskolski. 2020. Wood and bark of Buddleja: uniseriate phellem, and systematic and ecological patterns. IAWA Journal 42: 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1163/22941932-bja10020
Wood anatomy of Buddleja is well-explored but not in many southern African members, which form a grade of species and small clades that form successive sister groups to the rest of the genus, and its bark structure has not been studied at all. We provide new descriptions of wood anatomy for twelve s…
Li, M., J. He, Z. Zhao, R. Lyu, M. Yao, J. Cheng, and L. Xie. 2020. Predictive modelling of the distribution of Clematis sect. Fruticella s. str. under climate change reveals a range expansion during the Last Glacial Maximum. PeerJ 8: e8729. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8729
Background The knowledge of distributional dynamics of living organisms is a prerequisite for protecting biodiversity and for the sustainable use of biotic resources. Clematis sect. Fruticella s. str. is a small group of shrubby, yellow-flowered species distributed mainly in arid and semi-arid areas…