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A new plant species that buries its seeds – the first in its family – was discovered in the Atlantic forest of Bahia, Brazil, by an international team of amateur and professional scientists.

José Carlos Mendes Santos (a.k.a. Louro) is a handyman in rural northeastern Bahia, Brazil – one of the areas of the world with the highest biodiversity. Two years ago, he found a tiny, inch-high plant with white-and-pink flowers in the backyards of the off-the-grid house of amateur botanist and local plant collector Alex Popovkin. The little plant was brought home to be grown on a window sill for closer observation. In parallel, work on its identification began. Thanks to solar power and a satellite connection, Popovkin had access to the Internet, and as was his habit, he uploaded some photographs of the plant to Flickr and contacted several taxonomic experts around the globe. The family (strychnine family, or Loganiaceae) and genus (Spigelia) of the plant were soon established, with a suggestion from a Brazilian botanist that it might be a new species.

A collaboration was started with Lena Struwe, a specialist of the plant’s family at Rutgers University, who had previously described a species in the gentian family from the Andes named after Harry Potter (apparating moon-gentian, Macrocarpaea apparata), and another after the Inca tribe (the Inca ring-gentian, Symbolanthus incaicus). More collections were made, photographs uploaded and specimens deposited at the State University at Feira de Santana (HUEFS) in Bahia, while Mari Carmen Molina, a visiting scientist in Struwe’s lab from Spain, extracted the plant’s DNA. In collaboration with Katherine Mathews from Western Carolina University, it was confirmed that the genus was indeed Spigelia, to which pinkroot, an old North American herbal remedy against intestinal parasites, also belongs.

Only a few miniscule plants were found in the field the first year. They would die each dry season, only to reappear again at the beginning of the rain season. The plant growing on the window sill soon showed a particular and rare characteristic: after fruits were formed, the fruiting branches would bend down, depositing the capsules with seeds on the ground (and sometimes burying them in the soft cover of moss), thereby ensuring that the seeds would end up as close to the mother plant as possible, facilitating its propagation the following season. This phenomenon, called geocarpy, is a rare adaptation to growing in harsh or ephemeral environments. A famous example of geocarpy is the well-known peanut from the legume family that buries its fruits in the ground. The new species, appropriately named Spigelia genuflexa, is described in an open-access paper published this week by the five collaborators in the taxonomic journal PhytoKeys, from where the article can be downloaded for free.

Mr. Popovkin: This is my first botanical publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Hopefully, there will be more to follow. I had since early adolescence felt attraction to plants, especially tropical plants, when working as a volunteer at the greenhouses of the Botanic Garden of the University of St Petersburg, Russia. It took me 30 years to realize my dream of living in the tropics and studying its plants up close. My daily botanizing walks always bring personal discoveries. My help and local fellow collector Louro has also shown great interest in botany.

“It is very easy to think we have found and described most plant species of the world already, but this discovery shows that there are so much left out there without name and recognition”, says Struwe and adds, “This discovery shows that the most amazing living things can be found when you least expect it, during times and places when you really aren’t looking for something new, and suddenly it is right there in front of you. How many of us haven’t had the most brilliant ideas in the shower? The art of  taxonomy is finding as well as being able to recognize something as new or different, which is hard when the world is home to millions of species and very few species experts.”

This case shows that collaboration between amateurs and professional scientists, using both new molecular and traditional methods and making use of the facilities of the Internet can lead to new discoveries and new efficient ways of documenting the world’s biodiversity.

Photographs of Spigelia genuflexa taken by Alex Popovkin are available under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 2.0) from Flickr.

Original source: Popovkin AV, Mathews KG, Santos JCM, Molina MC, Struwe L (2011) Spigelia genuflexa (Loganiaceae), a new geocarpic species from the Atlantic forest of northeastern Bahia, Brazil. PhytoKeys 6: 47-65. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.6.1654

Uma nova espécie de planta que enterra as suas sementes – a primeira descoberta na família – foi encontrada na Mata Atlântica do litoral norte da Bahia, Brasil, por um grupo internacional de botânicos amadores e cientistas.

José Carlos Mendes Santos (de apelido “Louro”) é um caseiro na região rural do nordeste da Bahia, Brasil – uma das áreas do mundo com maior biodiversidade. Há dois anos, ele encontrou uma planta minúscula de apenas 3 cm de altura e com flores esbranquiçadas no quintal da casa do botânico amador e coletor local Alex Popovkin. A plantinha foi trazida para casa para ser cultivada na janela para uma observação cuidadosa. Em paralelo, o trabalho sobre a sua identificação começou. Graças à energia solar e uma conexão via satélite, Popovkin teve acesso à Internet, e como era seu hábito, ele enviou algumas fotos da planta para o Flickr e fez contato com diversos especialistas em taxonomia ao redor do mundo. A família (família da estricnina, ou Loganiaceae) e o gênero (Spigelia) da planta foram logo estabelecidos, com uma sugestão de uma botânica brasileira que poderia tratar-se de uma nova espécie.

Uma colaboração foi iniciada com Lena Struwe, especialista da família da planta na Universidade Rutgers, que já havia descrito uma espécie dos Andes da família das gencianas e nomeada após Harry Potter (Macrocarpaea apparata), e outra em homenagem à tribo Inca (Symbolanthus incaicus). Mais coletas foram feitas, mais fotografias detalhadas postas no Flickr e amostras da planta foram depositadas na coleção do Herbário da Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (HUEFS) na Bahia. Enquanto isso, Mari Carmen Molina, uma cientista espanhola visitante no laboratório de Struwe, extraiu o DNA da planta, e em colaboração com Katherine Mathews da Western Carolina University no estado da Carolina do Norte confirmaram que o gênero era de fato Spigelia, ao qual também pertence o espigélia (pinkroot), um remédio natural contra parasitas intestinais conhecido há muito na América do Norte.

Somente algumas plantas minúsculas foram encontradas no campo durante o primeiro ano. Elas morrem a cada estação seca, e reaparecerem novamente apenas no início das chuvas. A planta cultivada na janela logo mostrou uma característica bem particular e rara: depois que os frutos são formados, os ramos da inflorescência com os frutos se dobram para baixo, depositando os frutos com sementes no solo (e às vezes enterrando-os sob a superfície macia de musgo), garantindo assim que as sementes acabem se estabelecendo o mais próximo possível da planta-mãe, facilitando a sua propagação na temporada seguinte. Este fenômeno, chamado geocarpia, é uma adaptação rara observada em plantas que geralmente crescem em ambientes rigorosos ou efêmeros. Um exemplo famoso de geocarpia é o bem conhecido amendoim da família das leguminosas, que enterra seus frutos no chão. A nova espécie, apropriadamente chamada Spigelia genuflexa, é descrita em um artigo de livre acesso que foi publicado esta semana pelos cinco colaboradores na revista taxonômica PhytoKeys, de onde o artigo poderá ser baixado gratuitamente.

Mr. Popovkin: Esta é minha primeira publicação botânica em uma revista profissional. Espero poder contribuir ainda mais em breve. Desde o início da minha adolescência, tenho tido uma grande atração pelas plantas, especialmente as plantas tropicais, quando comecei a trabalhar como voluntário nas estufas do jardim botânico da Universidade de São Petersburgo na Rússia. Levei 30 anos para realizar meu sonho de viver nos trópicos e estudar as plantas de perto. Minhas caminhadas diárias em busca por plantas sempre me proporcionam descobertas pessoais. Louro, o meu ajudante e companheiro local de coletas, tem também despertado o interesse pela botânica.

“É muito fácil pensar que já temos encontrado e descrito a maioria das espécies de plantas do mundo, mas esta descoberta mostra que ainda resta muito a ser reconhecido” diz Struwe, e acrescenta “Esta descoberta mostra que o mais fascinante das coisas vivas pode ser encontrado quando a gente menos espera, em lugares e momentos quando a gente realmente não está procurando por alguma coisa nova, e então de repente ela está exatamente ali em frente da gente. Quantos de nós não temos tido as mais brilhantes ideias quando estamos tomando banho? A arte da taxonomia é encontrar, bem como ser capaz de reconhecer algo como novo ou diferente, o que é difícil porque o mundo abriga milhões de espécies, mas pouquíssimas pessoas são especialistas nos diferentes grupos de plantas".

Este caso mostra que a colaboração entre amadores e profissionais cientistas, usando os novos métodos moleculares e os tradicionais e através das facilidades da Internet pode levar a novas descobertas e maneiras eficientes de documentar a biodiversidade mundial.

Fotos de Alex Popovkin estão disponíveis sob a licensa Creative Commons (Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/plants_of_russian_in_brazil/sets/72157619216710603/with/4627080568/
 

A team of researchers from the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Xiao-Liang Wang and Yi-Jian Yao), summarized all the available information on the insect species associated with the Tibetan medicinal fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis through an extensive literature survey and analyzed their relationships with the fungus. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The fungus has traditionally been used as a tonic to strengthen the human body and in the treatment of kidney and lung problems. It has also been shown to possess a variety of medicinal effects by recent studies, e.g. immunomodulating, hypocholesterolemic, hypoglycemic, anti-tumor, anti-oxidation and anti-aging activities. Natural products of O. sinensis are now sold at a price higher than Gold. The fungus contributes billions of RMB (Chinese yuan) to the rural economy on the Tibet Plateau each year and often accounts for 70%～90% of a local family’s annual income. Thousands and thousands of collectors crowd onto the Tibet Plateau every summer, causing a sharp decrease in the natural production of O. sinensis and serious damages to the environment.

“Ophiocordyceps sinensis (also Cordyceps sinensis), known as the Chinese Caterpillar Fungus or ‘Dong Chong Xia Cao’ (winter worm, summer grass) in Chinese, is one of the most widely recognized Traditional Chinese Medicines endemic to the Tibetan Plateau. It has been listed as an endangered species under the second class of state protection since 1999 by the Chinese government and has a striking developmental biology. As a Sac (ascomycete) fungus, it parasitizes larvae of moths of  the family Hepialidae and converts them into sclerotized bodies from which the fungus fruiting body grows. So the natural production of this fungus is closely related to its insect hosts.” said the corresponding author Prof. Yi-Jian Yao.

Since the late 1950s, much effort has been devoted to the study of insect species related to O. sinensis in China. However, the number of insect host species of O. sinensis and the relationship between those insects and the fungus remains unclear.

In the study by Wang and Yao, a total of 4793 related publications, in either English or Chinese, were obtained and analyzed. Ninety-one insect names spanning 13 genera of Chinese Hepialidae moths were gathered from the literature search, together with detailed information of their geographic distribution and altitude. The relationships between the reported insect species and O. sinensis were analyzed based on the overlap of their geographic distribution and altitude range. Fifty-seven of these insects are considered as recognizable potential host species of the fungus, whilst eight are considered as indeterminate hosts and 26 as non-hosts.

The results of this study provide basic information for management of the insect resources and for the conservation and sustainable use of O. sinensis. It will lay a foundation for further studies of the relationship between the fungus and its hosts, especially their co-evolution (an ongoing research project based on DNA sequence analyses in Prof. Yao’s laboratory).

Original source:
Wang X-L, Yao Y-J (2011) Host insect species of Ophiocordyceps sinensis: a review. ZooKeys 127: 43–59. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.127.802

In one of the first taxonomic revisions of Neotropical butterflies that utilizes ‘DNA barcoding’, Andrei Sourakov (University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History) and Evgeny Zakharov (University of Guelph, Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario) uncovered a spectacular degree of evolutionary divergence within the satyrine butterfly genus Calisto. The study was published in the open-access journal Comparative Cytogenetics.

The Caribbean has a remarkable diversity of habitats and wildlife. More than 200 species of butterflies belonging to some 100 genera live on the islands, with most genera represented by a single species. Many species are endemic to the region, that is they do not occur anywhere else. This distinctive fauna apparently arose as a result of species immigrating from the mainland at some point during the islands’ history, and later evolving mostly into island isolates.

The satyrine butterfly genus Calisto is the most notable of them, because it has the largest number of extant species compared to other butterfly genera found in the region. Until the present revision, Calisto had comprised 54 named taxa, which occupy an extremely diverse array of habitats, suggestive of adaptive radiation on the scale of other classic examples, such as the Galápagos or Darwin’s finches.

The authors of the study applied a new set of molecular characters to clarify the classification and evolution of Calisto butterflies. The ‘DNA barcoding’ technique is based on the analysis of short, standardized gene region within mitochondrial DNA, and provides an efficient method for species identification. As a result, Calisto now contains 34 species and 17 subspecies and new data shed light on the general evolutionary history of the genus.

The discovered spectacular degree of DNA divergence suggests a diversification period of 4-8 million years. Species of Calisto that occur only in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica were found likely to have evolved from various Hispaniolan ancestors. The study found no support for previously advocated theories of evolution through geographic separation events due to plate tectonics. The evolutionary time-frame and the phylogenetic position of non-Hispaniolan taxa suggest that ancient dispersal events from Hispaniola to other islands and adaptive radiation within Hispaniola are likely responsible for the diversification within the genus Calisto.

Original source: Sourakov A, Zakharov EV (2011) "Darwin’s butterflies"? DNA barcoding and the radiation of the endemic Caribbean butterfly genus Calisto (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae). Comparative Cytogenetics 5(3): 191-210. doi: 10.3897/CompCytogen.v5i3.1730

Why different species have dissimilar sets of chromosomes? Why the differentiated species often conserve apparently identical chromosome complements? Furthermore, why, while chromosome rearrangements can considerably change the course of species evolution, certain variation among individuals and populations of some species persists indefinitely? Such questions motivate researchers to compare chromosomes in closely related species.

To understand the nature of chromosome changes in the voles Microtus savii, researchers from the Rome State University "Sapienza" launched a molecular cytogenetic study. Three of the five Italian forms of pine voles showed remarkable differences in chromosomal distribution of two molecular markers. Analyzing these data and weighing them against previously obtained genetic information, the authors expect to improve the taxonomy of these rodents and to track the pathway of their chromosomal evolution.

The Italian pine voles have long been known as a "species complex", namely the Microtus savii complex. The group includes five "forms": "savii", "brachycercus", "nebrodensis", "niethammericus", and "tolfetanus", distributed throughout the Apennine peninsula. The most widely dispersed is "savii"; "brachycercus" lives in Calabria, "niethammericus" inhabits the Southeast part of the peninsula, while "nebrodensis" is restricted to Sicily.

These ground voles have evolved at different times either with or without chromosomal rearrangements. Chromosomal distribution of specific genes and DNA sequences can help to distinguish between related species with very similar, apparently identical, chromosomes. By localization of such molecular "markers" on chromosomes, or so-called "physical mapping", researchers evidence differences that are normally invisible in microscope. These differences indicate "hidden" processes of chromosome diversification.

Original source: Gornung E, Bezerra AMR, Castiglia R (2011) Comparative chromosome mapping of the rRNA genes and telomeric repeats in three Italian pine voles of the Microtus savii s.l. complex (Rodentia, Cricetidae). Comparative Cytogenetics 5(3): 247-257. doi: 10.3897/CompCytogen.v5i3.1429

Flight attacks of small parasitoid wasps (no larger than 2.0 mm in size) on ant workers have been filmed by José María Gómez Durán from Madrid. The four species of wasps show amazing adaptations and enormous differences in the tactics they use. Two of the four filmed species are new to science and are described by Dr Kees van Achterberg from NCB Naturalis Leiden. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Ants are a very dominant group in nature and well-equipped to defend themselves. Only a few small parasitoids manage to break through their defence, thanks to very different and amazing adaptations. The four filmed species belong to four different genera and two different families of wasps (Braconidae and Ichneumonidae). The eggs of the Braconidae develop inside adult ants. The eggs of the Ichneumonidae, however, develop in the larvae of ants. How the newly developed young wasps manage to survive inside the ant nest is still unknown. One of the possible explanations is that dead ants may be deposited outside the entrance of the ant nest, thus giving the young wasps a chance to emerge, avoiding a lethal attack on themselves.

Here are links to four movies, supplementing the article, on Pensoft’s YouTube channel:

Parasitoid wasp (Hybrizon buccatus) ovipositing in ants (Lasius grandis)

Parasitoid wasp (Elasmosoma luxemburgense) ovipositing in ants (Formica rufibarbis)

Parasitoid wasp (Neoneurus vesculus) ovipositing in ants (Formica cunicularia)

Parasitoid wasp (Kollasmosoma sentum) ovipositing in ants (Cataglyphis ibericus)

Original Source: Gómez Durán JM, van Achterberg C (2011) Oviposition behaviour of four ant parasitoids (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Euphorinae, Neoneurini and Ichneumonidae, Hybrizontinae), with the description of three new European species. ZooKeys 125: 59-106. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.125.1754

New findings of researchers from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Mauro Mandrioli, Valentina Monti and Gian Carlo Manicardi) show that in aphids the two X chromosomes have a different inheritance. The study was published in Comparative Cytogenetics.

Aphids are insects with a sex determination model based on the presence of two X chromosomes (XX) in females and a single X chromosome (XO) in males. Previous studies suggested that X chromosome loss during male determination was random and that both X chromosomes have the same probability to be inherited in males. On the contrary, some authors suggested the presence of strong biases in the transmission of sex chromosomes, so that X chromosomes may have a non-mendelian inheritance in aphids.

On the basis of the results obtained in potato aphid Macrosiphum euphorbiae, we suggest the presence of a non-random elimination of one X chromosome during the male determination process. In particular, the unequal distribution of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) genes between the two X chromosomes could favour the loss of the X chromosome with fewer rDNA genes. This result is due to the fact that all the aphid eggs during the prophase present two X chromosomes linked by rDNA genes. However, in eggs developing as females, the connection is quickly lost, but in male generating eggs the X chromosomes remain attached by rDNA genes and undergo a sort of non-canonical reductional division, so that at the end of this peculiar division, the egg has one X chromosome only and it is determined as a male.

X chromosomes with few rDNA genes seem to be less sticky that X chromosomes with larger rDNA regions, so that their inheritance is not random and X chromosomes with few rDNA genes may be lost and not inherited in males. Mutations in the chromosome structure could therefore affect chromosomal inheritance even if these changes do not affect regions involved in centromere functioning.

Original source:
Monti, V., Manicardi, G.C. Mandrioli, M. (2011) – Cytogenetic and molecular analysis of the holocentric chromosomes of the potato aphid Macrosiphum euphorbiae. Comparative Cytogenetics 5: 163-172.  doi: 10.3897/compcytogen.v5i3.1724

Plants helping human parasites, roads as weed highways, and chemical warfare between alien and native plants – these are only some of the topics covered in NeoBiota – a new open-access, peer-reviewed, rapid online journal in invasion biology. NeoBiota was launched by Pensoft Publishers continuing the former NeoBiota Proceedings series. The Editor-in-Chief of the new journal is Dr Ingolf Kühn from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ, Halle, Germany, assisted by an authoritative Editorial Team.

The vision of the Editorial Board on the priority issues and future development of invasion biology is presented in an Editorial co-authored by many leading specialists in biological invasions and published in NeoBiota’s inaugural issue.

"There are at least three main reasons for launching a new journal on biological invasions. First, there is a need for a publication which considers introduced species irrespective of their impact, negative or positive (e.g., planned introductions of economically important species); second, a journal is required that publishes the results of close interdisciplinary research; and third, provides the first solely open access publication dealing specifically with biological invasions." said Dr Kühn.

NeoBiota will pay special attention to increasing public awareness of the challenges posed by biological invasions through an established system of press releases targeted at other publishers, mass media, science and general blogs and social networks amongst others.

"The rate and scale with which biological invasions happen nowadays are unprecedented. It is truly exciting to have a journal that will address these challenges through rapid online open-access using the innovative publishing and dissemination methods already in place in other Pensoft’s journals." commented Dr Tom Stohlgren from the US Geologial Survey, Fort Collins. "The ‘journals of the future’ should be types of social networks, serving the interested community and reaching out to a wider audience, providing barrier-free, rapid and concise information, as well as access to underlying data. Surely, a crucial set of features for studying and managing biological invasions!" added Dr Stohlgren.

The journal provides automated cross-linking through the innovative Pensoft Taxon Profile tool revealing all taxa published. This includes the world’s leading indexing and aggregation biodiversity platforms, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), the International Plant Name Index (IPNI), MycoBank, Index Fungorum, ZooBank, the National Center for Biodiversity Information (NCBI), the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), the bibliographic archives PubMed, PubMedCentral, and many others. NeoBiota will provide also a strong support and cutting-edge infrastructure for open data publishing through internationally recognized data repositories, such as GBIF, Genbank, Barcode of Life, Dryad, Pangaea and others.

NeoBiota will publish minimum two more issues by the end of 2011.

Original source: Kühn I, Kowarik I, Kollmann J, Starfinger U, Bacher S, Blackburn TM, Bustamante RO, Celesti-Grapow L, Chytrý M, Colautti RI, Essl F, Foxcroft LC, Garcia-Berthou E, Gollasch S, Hierro J, Hufbauer RA, Hulme PE, Jarošik V, Jeschke JM, Karrer G, Mack RN, Molofsky J, Murray BR, Nentwig W, Osborne B, Pyšek P, Rabitsch W, Rejmánek M, Roques A, Shaw R, Sol D, Vilà M, van Kleunen M, von der Lippe M, Wolfe LM, Penev L (2011) Open minded and open access: introducing NeoBiota, a new peer-reviewed journal of biological invasions. NeoBiota 9: 1-11. doi: 10.3897/NeoBiota.9.1835

A pearl-flowered legume collected in 2005 by Ralph Clark & Nigel Barker (Rhodes University) in the Sneeuberg, South Africa, was determined by taxonomists Charles Stirton & Muthama Muasya (University of Cape Town) to be a distinct new species. Psoralea margaretiflora is the latest endemic species from the Sneeuberg Centre of Floristic Endemism. The discovery highlights the importance of the poorly explored Great Escarpment in South Africa. The study was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

The Sneeuberg Centre of Floristic Endemism, Eastern Cape Province, and South Africa’s newest Centre of Endemism, was recognised by Ralph Clark, Nigel Barker and Laco Mucina as recently as 2009 (Clark, V.R., Barker, N.P. & Mucina, L. 2009. The Sneeuberg: A new centre of floristic endemism on the Great Escarpment, South Africa. South African Journal of Botany 75: 196-238).

The recognition of the new Sneeuberg Centre arose out of the doctoral studies of Ralph Clark. The Great Escarpment Biodiversity Research Programme co-ordinates new research in the region and is lead by Prof. Nigel Barker at the Department of Botany, Rhodes University. The research effort is a response to the increasingly obvious lack of baseline biodiversity studies on the species-rich Great Escarpment in southern Africa. So far comprehensive biodiversity research work has been undertaken on the Sneeuberg, with further work currently being undertaken on the Nuweveldsberge, Roggeveldberge and Great Winterberg-Amatolas, and in future further afield in collaboration with other biodiversity scientists.

The Pearl-flowered Psoralea was one of several new species discovered on the first two botanical expeditions to the Sneeuberg by Rhodes University in the 2005-2006 summer season. It is one of 27 endemic species confined to these remote mountains. Many of these endemics have only recently been discovered, and some have very restricted distributions. Ralph Clark is collaborating with taxonomic experts from around the world to ensure that these new species are described and recognised in a reasonable time frame so that their conservation can be ensured.

Charles Stirton, an expert on the genus Psoralea, was one of several biodiversity scientists on a biodiversity blitz of the poorly-studied Kamdeboorge in January 2011 (organised by the Southern African Society for Systematic Biology as their Post-Congress Tour). He was able to see Psoralea margaretiflora in the field and confirm its status as a new species. Material collected on this expedition was used during the expedition to draft the technical details needed for the species’ description and publication.

Original Source: Stirton CH, Clark VR, Barker NP, Muasya AM (2011) Psoralea margaretiflora (Psoraleeae, Fabaceae): A new species from the Sneeuberg Centre of Floristic Endemism, Eastern Cape, South Africa. PhytoKeys 5: 31–38. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.5.1585

Read the paper here.

Molecular data have shown that three Australian Cucurbitaceae species initially collected in 1856 but never accepted as separate species are distinct from each other and that one of them is the closest relative of the honeymelon, Cucumis melo. The names for these species are sorted out in a study published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1005338107) last year had shown that northern Australia harbours the sister species of the honeymelon, Cucumis melo, which previously had been hypothesized to occur in Africa.  It turned out that the Australian honeymelon relative had in fact been collected and named Cucumis picrocarpus by one of the fathers of Australian botany, Ferdinand von Mueller, in 1856, but then been erroneously synonymized. The same thing happened with another of Mueller’s discoveries, this one being a species of loofah (the genus Luffa), which had was been erroneously synonymized and was then forgotten until 2011. Matters were complicated by some of Mueller’s 1856 collections arriving in the herbarium of the Royal Botanical Gardens Kew in disarray, so that two species were mounted on one and the same herbarium sheet. This naturally led to a confused idea of the morphology of the supposed species.

The researchers sorted out what is what on the Kew herbarium sheet, which then received an additional new barcode number assigned by the Kew herbarium to reflect that it carries two plant species, not just one. A high-resolution color photo of this historically interesting herbarium sheet is contained in the paper.

The study provides an example of the continuing need to link herbarium science with molecular results to sort out the names and wild relatives of economically important groups, such as melons and loofahs.

Original Source: Telford IRH, Schaefer H, Greuter W, Renner SS (2011) A new Australian species of Luffa (Cucurbitaceae) and typification of two Australian Cucumis names, all based on specimens collected by Ferdinand Mueller in 1856. PhytoKeys 5: 21–29. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.5.1395