| Abstract Detail
Systematics/Phytogeography / Taxonomie/ Section Barkworth, Mary [1], Jacobs, Surrey [2]. The Stipeae in Australia and NOrth America: Observations from the field. The Stipeae include more than 530 species and are found in temperate regions throughout the world. North America (including Mexico) has about 62 species and eight genera, but the monophyly of some of these genera is not well supported. Approximately 67 stipoid species are native to Australasia, all in the genus Austrostipa whose monophyly is, in general, well-supported although its relationships to the other members of the tribe are not clear. Despite its monophyly, there is no morphological key that distinguishes Austrostipa from all the other currently recognized genera of the Stipeae. While collecting Austrostipa last year, we realized that there are many characteristics that are more common, in some instances much more common, in that genus than they are in the North American species. For instance, many Australian species, but only one North American species, are shortly rhizomatous; the same is true for of hairy ligules – many Australian species have them, but only one North America species. As a step toward understanding the diversification of the tribe, we are comparing the morphology of the species from different areas. In this presentation, we discuss the results of this comparison for Australian and North American species, the impediments we encountered in developing and conveying the information, and speculate on the factors responsible for the differences.
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1 - Utah State University, Intermountain Herbarium, Dept. of Biology, 5305 Old Main Hill, Logan, Utah, 84322, USA
2 - Royal Botanic Gardens, Mrs Macquaries Road, Sydney, New South Wales, 2000, Australia
Keywords:
morphology
diversification
Stipeae
Australia
North America
Austrostipa.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 36
Location: 157/Law
Date: Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Time: 11:45 AM
Number: 36015
Abstract ID:85 |
