Kew Scientist

ISSN: 0967-8018

Autumn 2009

NEWS

FROM

Issue 36

www.kew.org

THE LIVING COLLECTIONS, THE HERBARIUM

AND

T H E L A B O R AT O R I E S

AT

KEW & WAKEHURST PLACE

T. Hvoslef-Eide

W. Baker

Angiosperm Phylogeny T
Group III Classification

he Angiosperm Phylogeny Group

(APG) classification of the families and
orders of the flowering plants started
with the ground-breaking original paper in
1998. This was followed by an update in 2003,
which included a number of newly recognised
families and orders, and in October this year a
second update was published. Higher-level
relationships of the flowering plants are now
much better understood and supported than in
1998, and the number of unplaced eudicots has
dropped significantly (now down to just five
genera/families). APG III recognises 14 new
orders in the eudicots, these the result of much
more clearly understood relationships relative to
APG II (2003).

M. Rix

M. Vorontsova

In addition to the classification paper, three

accompanying papers address other issues
surrounding APG III. The first is a paper by
Elspeth Haston, James Richardson, David Harris
(RBG Edinburgh), Peter Stevens (Missouri BG)
and Mark Chase (RBG Kew) that outlines a
suitable linear order for arranging herbarium
collections or order beds in botanical gardens.
The second is a proposal by Mark Chase (Kew),
James Reveal (Cornell Univeristy) and Mike Fay
(Kew) for a subfamilial classification for three
enlarged families of Asparagales:
Amaryllidaceae, Asparagaceae and
Xanthorrhoeaceae. In APG II (2003) there were
alternative narrower circumscriptions proposed
for these three families, but these bracketed
circumscriptions were not popular so in APG III
they have been removed. However, the
recognised heterogeneity of these families
makes them unwieldy for specialists working on
either the taxonomy or attributes of the
narrower families, so to improve communication
a formal set of subfamilies is proposed.

Unexpected relationships of parasitic plants recognised by APG III. Rafflesia pricei

(Rafflesiaceae, top left) placed in Malpighiales with species such as Euphorbia
pulcherrima (Euphorbiaceae, top right), and Cytinus hypocistis (Cytinaceae, bottom left)
now in Malvales with species such as Muntingia calabura (Muntingiaceae; bottom right).

APG in the Gardens

An exhibition in the
Shirley Sherwood
Gallery at Kew, The
Art of Plant Evolution,
displays the APG III
classification using 136
contemporary
paintings of species
covering 118 families
and 50 orders. It also marks the 200th
anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the

Angiosperms downgraded

150th anniversary of his publication, On the

Origin of Species. A book The Art of Plant
Evolution (by S. Sherwood & J. Kress; Kew
Publishing, 2009) accompanies the exhibition,
price 24.95 from www.kewbooks.com.
Kews order beds are now organised according
to the APG classification. These collections
were a valuable resource to the authors of The
Vegetative Key to the British Flora (by J. Poland
& E. J. Clement; Botanical Society of the British
Isles, 2009), which provides a new approach to
identifying native plants without flower or fruit.

The last paper, by Mark Chase and James

Reveal, is a formal supraordinal classification of
the land plants that includes the ordinal and
familial structure of APG III and overlays a set of
superorders for the angiosperms within a single
subclass. The angiosperms have previously
always been classified at a taxonomic level too
high relative to the other green plants, and this
classification rectifies this problem.
Contact: Prof. Mark Chase (m.chase@kew.org)

DIRECTORS MESSAGE

BIODIVERSTY INFORMATICS

Breathing Planet
Programme

e-Biosphere 09

LAPI Data Available Online

The e-Biosphere 09 conference (www.ebiosphere09.org) brought together more

than 500 people from 63 countries to discuss
the status of biodiversity informatics; 20 Kew
staff contributed presentations and posters as
well as running a booth demonstrating Kews
work. The meeting came 24 years on from
the creation of the Taxonomic Databases
Working Group (www.tdwg.org), and its size
reflects the increased importance of
managing biodiversity information
collaboratively as technological capabilities
develop. The diversity of participants and the
attempt to engage broad user-communities
were significant and, while little was said that
was genuinely new, there was much
discussion around whether biodiversity
informatics was a discipline or a collaborative
global venture with specific, achievable goals.
A small group met subsequently to draft a
roadmap for enhanced interoperability
between existing initiatives. The priority
actions identified include a virtual platform
for integrating and analyzing biodiversity
information, and increased links with users
and policy. These complement current Kew
initiatives and inform design of the integrated
plant information system to be implemented
as part of Kews IT and Digital Medial
Strategy.

In January 2007, following digitisation of type

specimens for the African Plants Initiative, Kew
embarked upon the Latin American Plants
Initiative (LAPI), funded by the Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation. To date, LAPI has added
data and associated high resolution images for
over 70,000 type specimens to Kews Herbarium
Catalogue (http://apps.kew.org/herbcat/). These
specimens are now also available on the new
JSTOR website (http://plants.jstor.org/), which
contains type specimen data and images from
more than 100 botanical institutions. Recently,
a camera with a Leaf Aptus-II 10 image sensor
has allowed the LAPI team to digitise
specimens that are too thick (>2 cm) to be
imaged by a flatbed scanner. The camera is
currently being used to image Kews palm
specimen collection, and it will be shown at
the LAPI Partners meeting in Medelln
(Colombia) in December 2009.

The Breathing Planet

Programme is a ten
year forward
strategic view of
what Kew will
achieve through
global partnerships.
The Programme
aims to make an
urgent and
necessary step
change in the application of science-based plant
diversity solutions towards sustainable living and
a reasonable quality of life in the face of
accelerating climate change and the loss of
biodiversity. It embraces seven strategies that
will help conserve Earths remaining wild
vegetation, plant diversity and carbon sinks;
help improve human quality of life and plantbased adaptation to global change; help recover
lost plant diversity, productivity and carbon
sequestration; and better utilize botanic gardens
as shop-fronts for plants and fungi, sustainable
living and as critical innovative digital hubs.
Specifically, outcomes of the Breathing Planet
Programme will be achieved by:
Accelerating discovery of, and global access
to, targeted information on plant and fungi

Helping global conservation programmes on

the ground
Growing and using locally appropriate species
for a changing world
Safeguarding and enabling use of 25% of
plant species through the Millennium Seed
Bank Partnership
Building a global science network to significantly
improve restoration of plant diversity
Using botanic gardens to inform and inspire.
Science is integral to the success of this Programme.
Traditional areas of strength in plant and fungal
diversity research at Kew underpin achievement of
these increasingly urgent outcomes.
The Programme is a contemporary focusing and
evolution of our considerable scientific efforts
and partnerships. It will draw upon Kews
demonstrable ability to remain relevant in a
changing world, and will require consolidation
and expansion of collaborative partnerships.

Contact: Bob Allkin (b.allkin@kew.org)

Cinchona Catalogued
From the 1650s to the 1930s, the quinine
alkaloids found in the bark of Cinchona trees
were one of the few effective treatments for
malaria. The Economic Botany Collection at
Kew contains nearly 1,000 Cinchona barks, a
testament to its importance as a medicine and
Kews role in the transfer of Cinchona trees
from the Andes to Asia in the 1860s. Thanks
to a grant from the Wellcome Trust, this
collection has been recatalogued. This
enabled clarification of many names of plant
species, collectors and collection localities and
allowed bark specimens to be linked to 19th
century archives and scientific journals. The
collection, which spans the period 1780
1930, is now easily accessible to historians
and botanists wishing to investigate the
complex history of this vital medicinal plant
(www.kew.org/collections/ecbot).

Photograph enclosed by Robert Orchard Williams in a

letter to Sir Arthur William Hill, 1917. The photograph is
described as: Mr Urich in the water outside the
caretakers hut, Patos Island.

Lamiaceae Key

Contact: Mark Nesbitt (m.nesbitt@kew.org)

RBG, Kew

I remain inspired and humbled by the depth and

breadth of skills and experience that Kew and its
partners have to offer in devising plant-based
solutions towards new ways of sustainable living.
As we move from Kews 250th anniversary in
2009 to the International Year of Biodiversity in
2010, the Breathing Planet Programme promises
a significant contribution towards enhancing the
quality of life of people and biodiversity in the
face of challenging prospects.
Prof. Stephen D. Hopper FLS, Director

Contacts: Sara Brrios (lapi@kew.org)

Helen Hartley (h.hartley@kew.org)
RBG, Kew

Improving the identification and mapping of

species and regions most at risk

To complement the LAPI specimens

digitisation, over 13,000 pages of Latin
American correspondence received by Kew's
directors and senior staff between 1841 to the
1940s have also been imaged, summarised
and added to the JSTOR website. Both
digitisation projects are on target for
completion in late 2009.

Cinchona barks from the Economic Botany Collection.

An Interactive Key to the Genera of

Lamiaceae, developed by Nina Davies, Don
Kirkup and Gemma Bramley, is now available
online. Made using the software LUCID, the
key is aimed at a wide audience and only
uses a small set of characters, each linked to
a factsheet defining its states. Additionally,
genus factsheets contain nomenclatural
information from the World Checklist of
Lamiaceae, a generic description, distribution
information, and images both of herbarium
specimens and plants in the field. The key
was demonstrated in July 2009 at an
International Symposium on Lamiaceae at the
Brazilian Botanical Congress, Feira de
Santana, where Gemma Bramley, David
Mabberley and Alan Paton also gave
presentations on their Lamiaceae research.
Contact: Gemma Bramley (g.bramley@kew.org)
Visit: www.kew.org/herbarium/keys/lamiales/

Cultivated field of
Galanthus woronowii
in Georgia

Snowdrop Trade

Contact: Noel McGough (n.mcgough@kew.org)

Moss Identification
Molecular (AFLPs and sequences of the trnL-F
region) and morphological techniques have been
used to demonstrate that ex situ cultures of
Orthodontium gracile (critically endangered in
the UK) were contaminated with the potentially
invasive O. lineare. These mosses are difficult to
distinguish, but the molecular techniques were
successful in determining identity. There was
some discrepancy between molecular and
morphological determinations, with some
individuals being misidentified with morphology
alone. In re-establishment or reintroduction
programmes, it is recommended that bryophytes
should be characterised using molecular
techniques so that potentially serious
consequences in their management due to
misidentification may be avoided. Conserv.
Genet., in press, doi:10.1007/s10592-009-9948-3.
Contact: Robyn Cowan (r.cowan@kew.org)

Grass Conservation Portal

Grasses are a major focus for research as food
security and natural ecosystems become
threatened by rising populations and climate
change. GrassPortal is a new project being
undertaken with the University of Sheffield and
funded by the JISC e-Content Capital
Programme. It will utilise descriptive and
nomenclatural data in GrassBase
(www.kew.org/data/grasses-db.html), one of
Kews major taxonomic databases, as the
taxonomic backbone for an ecological data
facility for grasses that will contain analytical and
visualisation tools to explore the environment
and ecology of the worlds 11,000 grass species.
Contact: Dr David Simpson (d.simpson@kew.org)

M. Bidartondo

CONSERVATION

RESTORATION NEWS
Kew has secured Darwin Initiative
funding for a two-year project to help the
Cambodian Forestry Administration
establish a Forest Restoration Research
Unit in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Seed
Conservation Department staff will provide
training in seed collection and storage and
carry out laboratory work on germination
and seed storage of target species.
Forest restoration nursery being built in
Siem Reap, Cambodia.

K. Sobon

R. Wilford

Kew has been working with Microsoft

Research, Tbilisi Botanical Garden and
Institute of Botany, and the CITES Authorities
of Georgia to survey populations of Galanthus
woronowii. Georgia currently exports 15
million wild snowdrops per year and these
exports make up some 99% of Georgias
CITES animal and plant trade. The snowdrops
are exported via Turkey to the Netherlands
where they enter the horticultural market. The
project aims are to survey cultivated and wild
populations, model potential sustainable
harvest, recommend annual quota levels and
develop management and monitoring systems
to allow a long term sustainable trade in the
species. Richard Wilford (Kew) and Matthew
Smith (Microsoft Research) joined the
Georgian authorities in March 2009 to study
cultivation sites and the methods employed in
growing G. woronowii. To date over 55 sites
have been visited, and extensive wild
populations and cultivated sites have been
sampled and mapped. A final report will be
delivered to CITES in December 2009.

Kew's restoration ecology programme

has received a further boost with the award
of a three-year Darwin Initiative grant to
publish a book entitled Restoring Tropical
Forests: a Practical Guide. Working with the
Forest Restoration Research Unit, Thailand,
and Wildlife Landscapes, UK, Kew will
contribute case studies to the book and
publish it through Kew Publishing.
Five members of Kew staff attended the
biennial conference of the Society for
Ecological Restoration International, in
Perth, Australia (23-27 August 2009).
Steve Hopper delivered a keynote address
on the role of botanic gardens in
restoration, while others delivered two
talks and a workshop.
Contact: Dr Kate Hardwick (k.hardwick@kew.org)

Mozambique Strategy
Birch and pine invading heathland at
Thursley Common NNR, UK.

Heathland Invasion
In England, the loss of lowland heathland,
a habitat of global conservation
importance, is primarily due to invasion by
birch and pine trees. Below ground, tree
encroachment into heathlands can be
regarded as the replacement of the
resident heather mycorrhizal community by
an invading tree mycorrhizal community.
In a study supported by the Natural
Environment Research Council, Fay Collier
and Martin Bidartondo (Imperial/Kew)
demonstrated that of the many mycorrhizal
fungi growing in nearby woodlands, only
four three mushrooms and a truffle are
able to disperse into lowland heathlands as
spores. Thus, most tree seedlings remain
non-mycorrhizal and limited in their growth
until they are colonised by these keystone
fungi. J. Ecol. 96, 950 (2009).
Contact: Dr Martin Bidartondo (m.bidartondo@kew.org)
3

The last activity of a Darwin Initiative project

studying south-east African montane
biodiversity was a workshop in Maputo,
Mozambique, in June 2009, attended by two
ministers and a permanent secretary from
Mozambique, and Kews director. At the
workshop, the Minister of Science &
Technology, Venancio Massingue, invited IIAM,
the Mozambican partner in the project, to lead
a conservation strategy for the mountain areas
and coastal forests of Mozambique so that they
receive greater recognition and protection.
Contact: Jonathan Timberlake (j.timberlake@kew.org)

Biotechnology Network
A new Conservation Biotechnology Network,
based at Kew, brings together plant
biotechnology organizations and individuals to
integrate conservation research on threatened
plant species. As part its launch, a special issue
of In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology
Plant will feature in vitro and cryogenic
research with conservation and restoration
applications.
www.kew.org/mailman/listinfo/conservationbiotechnet

Barcode for Land Plants

Inflorescence Terminology

Plant DNA barcoding efforts have been

hampered by the lack of agreement about
which DNA markers should be made standard.
The gene used in most groups of animals, coxI
or CO1, evolves too slowly in plants to be
useful, but plastid DNA regions, the obvious
choice in plants, also evolve more slowly than
would be considered desirable. A large
international effort was therefore focused on
identifying the best region or set of regions of
plastid DNA, and in the 4 August 2009 issue of
the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences (USA) the Plant Working Group of the
Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL)
announced that they had selected as the
universal plant barcode two plastid genes: rbcL
and matK. Genes rather than non-coding
regions were selected because 1) non-coding
regions were only minimally more variable and
2) non-coding regions produced inferior quality
output due to sequence motifs that cause
problems for DNA polymerase. Proc. Natl.
Acad. Sci. USA 106, 12794 (2009).

The iterative structure of inflorescences makes

them suitable subjects for constructing
models to account for morphological
variation. However, the terminology
surrounding inflorescence architecture suffers
from radically divergent definitions of terms
that reduce the value of some recent
predictive models.
In a recent Opinion paper, Gerhard Prenner
(Kew), Francisco Vergara-Silva (UNAM Mexico)
and Paula Rudall (Kew) stress the key role of
morphology in modelling inflorescence
architecture; they argue in favour of uniform
terminology and against over-simplification.
Recognising the value of bracts and prophylls
as key markers of inflorescence architecture,
their preferred terminology gives the main
inflorescence types as cymose, racemose,
paniculate and thyrsoid, although problematic
special cases such as highly reduced flowerlike inflorescences (pseudanthia) defy
assignment to particular types. Trends Plant
Sci. 14, 302 (2009).

Contact: Prof. Mark Chase (m.chase@kew.org)

Techniques and

G. Prenner/RBG Kew

Contact: Dr Gerhard Prenner (g.prenner@kew.org)

Probing the Metabolome

When possible, Kew Scientists explore new

techniques to study character traits in
systematic research and develop new hypotheses
based on their findings.
S. Smith

Describing the complete chemical phenotype

(metabolome) of a plant remains
impracticable, but progress continues towards
the rapid characterisation of selected
phytochemical constituents in small fragments
of material. Through their systematic studies
of flavonoids in certain legumes, Geoffrey Kite
and Nigel Veitch devised a method to assign
candidate structures to a family of flavonoid
glycosides more effectively than hitherto
possible by rapid micro-scale analysis. The
technique uses the recently upgraded liquid
chromatographmass spectrometer at Kew. In
another study, Melanie-Jayne Howes,
Geoffrey Kite and Monique Simmonds
developed a means to quickly characterise the
volatile compounds of star anise (fruits of
Illicium verum) using thermal desorptiongas
chromatographymass spectrometry. The
method helps to distinguish star anise from
the potentially toxic fruits of I. anisatum.
Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 23, 3125
(2009); J. Agric. Food Chem. 57, 5783 (2009).

Aesculus octandra has an indeterminate thyrsoid

inflorescence according to a proposal to standardise
inflorescence terminology. This SEM shows the
indeterminate apex (coloured in red) and one
monochasial cyme (in yellow); flowers are numbered
according to their sequence of initiation.

Discovery Bias

Contact: Dr Geoffrey Kite (g.kite@kew.org)

G. Kite

David Roberts (Kew) and Charles Marshall

(Harvard University) have studied eight
groups of orchids to investigate how
morphological similarity affects the order of
species description. They focused on the
novelty bias, the preferential description of
species from higher taxa with relatively few
previously described species. In general, the
greater the morphological disparity, the
greater the opportunity for the novelty bias
to become manifest. Two of the three cases
where a bias was detected were from the
genus Dendrobium, which is extremely
variable in both floral and vegetative
morphology. The researchers pose the
question: if species are not found at
random, then is what we are collecting
representative of biodiversity? This is
important given the time and money spent
on rapid biodiversity assessment. Syst.
Biodiv. 7, 243 (2009).
Contact: Dr David Roberts (d.roberts@kew.org)

Kews new hybrid ion traporbitrap

mass spectrometer is being used to
probe the plant metabolome.

SYSTEMATI

Observations on Nuphar flower

buds that display green
(sepaloid) and yellow (petaloid)
regions, correlating with their
exposure during development,
has lead to a new theory on
flower evolution.

In flowers of many angiosperms the perianth is

differentiated into two distinct whorls: an outer
sepal whorl, which is typically green, and an
inner petal whorl, which is typically colourful.
This bipartite condition, an important feature of
angiosperms, is thought to have evolved
multiple times from an undifferentiated
perianth, in which all perianth organs (tepals)
are alike, as in some basal angiosperm
lineages, including waterlilies. How the
bipartite perianth arose has long been a
contentious puzzle, which has deepened
recently with reports that the same genes
appear to specify petals in lineages that
acquired bipartite perianths independently.

K Warner

C SCIENCE

Mosaic Theory of Perianth Evolution

d Theories
X-ray Imaging
A technique that is more commonly applied in
zoology, synchrotron radiation X-ray
tomographic microscopy (SRXTM), is also
useful for non-destructive imaging of rare or
difficult plant material. In collaboration with the
Swiss Light Source, researchers at Kew and
Royal Holloway (University of London), led by
Selena Smith (now at the University of
Michigan, USA), have used this technique to
compare living and fossil plants using virtual
three-dimensional dissections. This approach
yielded characters for identification of
exceptionally preserved fossils from the Middle
Eocene of Messel (Germany) as a mapanioid
sedge (Cyperaceae). The study underlines the
value of combining multiple techniques, such
as light microscopy, scanning and transmission
electron microscopy and SRXTM, to reveal
different features. Am. J. Bot. 96, 1506 (2009);
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106, 12013 (2009).

At Kew, Kate Warner, Paula Rudall and Mike

Frohlich noted that in some waterlilies
individual tepals display both green and
colourful patches, the green (sepaloid) patches
corresponding with regions that were exposed
when the flower was in bud. Using field

Contact: Prof. Mike Frohlich (m.frohlich@kew.org)

Tree Calibration

Genome Differences

Molecular dating has gained ever-increasing

interest in evolutionary studies, but calibration
(transformation of relative time into absolute
ages) has, until recently, received less attention
than other aspects of the methodology. In a
recent Botanical Briefing, Felix Forest identifies
the error-prone aspects of the calibration
process and discusses the methods proposed to
tackle these, with a particular focus on the use
of the fossil record for calibration. Ann. Bot.
104, 789 (2009).

One might expect the DNA of all organisms to

function in the same way. Yet with the growth
of DNA sequencing technology it is becoming
clear that there are fundamental differences in
the dynamics and evolution of genomes
between different groups of organisms. Eduard
Kejnovsky (Czech Academy of Sciences), Ilia
Leitch (Kew) and Andrew Leitch (Queen Mary,
University of London) have explored these
differences and reveal that angiosperm
genomes are considerably more dynamic and
labile compared with mammalian genomes.
Such differences most likely arise from
fundamental differences in life strategies and
developmental processes which feedback on
the genome influencing how it operates at all
levels from the gene to the genome. Trends
Ecol. Evol. 24, 572 (2009).

Contact: Dr Flix Forest (f.forest@kew.org)

Digital Morphometrics

Contact: Dr Paula Rudall (p.rudall@kew.org)

Left: X-ray imaging compares the internal structure of

the fruiting head of an Eocene fossil sedge Volkeria
messelensis (top) with a living mapanioid sedge
Hypolytrum nemorum (bottom). Digital longitudinal
sections (right) and surface views (left).
Below: Image-based morphometrics can be used to
study phenotypic characters that form mosaics in
hybridising species; for example the lower leaf surface
traits of crystalline wax in Populus tremula (left) and
indumentum of hairs in P. alba (right) revealed by SEM.

experiments and laboratory work, they found

that the development of sepaloid patches was,
indeed, triggered by exposure to light and
other factors. This led the researchers suggest
that the distinction between sepalness and
petalness evolved early in angiosperm history,
but these features were probably not fixed to
particular organs and were primarily
environmentally controlled. At a later stage in
angiosperm evolution, sepaloid and petaloid
characteristics became fixed to whole organs in
specific whorls, thus reducing or removing the
need for environmental control in favour of
fixed developmental control. The genes that
specify petalness were probably recruited once,
before these features were fixed to specific
whorls, so it is not surprising that they are still
employed in different lineages that
independently fixed sepalness and petalness to
specific whorls. J. Exp. Bot. 60, 3559 (2009).

G. Prenner/RBG Kew

Closely related species that hybridise have

long posed problems for taxonomists. Hybrids
are classically supposed to be intermediate
between their two parents, but this
expectation is rarely met. For many traits one
of the two parents conditions is favoured,
making the hybrids appear to be mosaics of
the parental traits, rather than being strictly
intermediate. Even more problematic are
hybridizing species in which introgression
occurs, such that a single trait or many traits
resemble one parent against a background of
traits associated with the other parent. In a
New Trends in Plant Systematics paper,
scientists from Kew, University of Fribourg
(Switzerland) and the Institute of Forest
Genetics (Vienna) outline this phenomenon
of phenotypic mosaics and demonstrate the
usefulness of geometric morphometrics to
closely examine multiple independent
phenotypic characters and detect individual
traits affected by introgression and
divergence. They conclude that image-based
morphometrics holds great promise for largescale studies of relationships between DNA
polymorphism and phenotypes in
evolutionary biology. Taxon 58, 349 (2009).
Contact: Dr Christian Lexer (c.lexer@kew.org)

Obese Genomes
The human genome would stretch 2 m if the
DNA was unravelled. In contrast, the DNA of
the obese genome of Fritillaria assyriaca
would stretch 84 m. In a new, three-year
NERC grant, Ilia Leitch, Mike Fay (Kew),
Andrew Leitch and Richard Nichols (Queen
Mary, University of London) will use highthroughput sequencing technologies to probe
the huge Fritillaria genome for the first time to
try to discover how and why it evolved.
Contact: Dr Ilia Leitch ( I.leitch@kew.org)

Fritillaria assyriaca
has one of the
most obese
genomes so far
reported but
why?

Codia triverticillata on New Caladonia.

New Caledonia

Turks and Caicos Islands

The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) national
flower, Limonium bahamense (sea heather), is
endemic to this Caribbean UK Overseas
Territory (UKOT) and under threat both from
habitat loss and invasive species. Recent
fieldwork has discovered new populations, and
the species is now recorded from five of the
islands. Seed collections have been banked in
the Millennium Seed Bank and used to establish
an ex situ collection at the Turks and Caicos
National Trusts (TCNT) newly constructed
native species nursery on Middle Caicos.

At Kew, the horticultural properties of

L. bahamense are being investigated in the
Tropical Nursery as part of a series of
horticultural protocols aimed at documenting
the germination and growth characteristics of
threatened UKOT plants. These will form part
of species recovery and action programmes.
The ex situ collection of L. bahamense is
thriving and the plants have started flowering
the first recorded flowering outside TCI.
Contact: Dr Colin Clubbe (c.clubbe@kew.org)

S. Williams

Sophie Williams and Chloe Hardman, two

MSc conservation science students at Imperial
College, London, have investigated the
distribution of endemic species (including
L. bahamense) and invasive species on TCI,
undertaking eight-weeks fieldwork with staff
from Kews UKOTs programme and TCNT.
They used the maximum entropy model

MaxEnt to predict potential environmental

suitability for endemics and invasives, based
on their field data. This will guide further
fieldwork to search for new populations of
threatened species. However, there is a large
overlap between the predicated suitable
habitat for key invasives such as Casuarina
equisetifolia and Leucaena leucocephala with
L. bahamense indicating a heightened future
threat if invasive control measures are not
implemented.

Prediction of environmental suitability for

Limonium bahamense in TCI.

Y. Pillon

ISLAND
RESEARCH

The Pacific island of New Caledonia has been

identified as one of the 25 biodiversity
hotspots worldwide. It is home to a wide
range of angiosperm taxa that have become
adapted to serpentine soils, which are
widespread. On the island, scientists from
New Caledonia and Kew have been studying
hybridisation, which is a problem in many
plant groups. Focusing on the endemic genus
Codia, it was found that species of hybrid
origin can have some morphological
characters absent in putative parental species;
that is, they exhibit transgressive phenotypes.
The researchers uncovered evidence of
considerable range alteration post-origin in
several Codia species because some likely
parental species of hybrid taxa no longer cooccur and are confined to putative rainforest
refugia. These results have implications for the
design of conservation strategies; for
example, prioritization of contact zones
between soil types where hybridization is
more likely to occur (i.e. conserving the
possibility for the process to continue rather
than trying to conserve taxa). Mol. Ecol. 18,
2263 (2009).
Contact: Prof. Mark Chase (m.chase@kew.org)

Lord Howe
A collaborative team led by Vincent
Savolainen has published a new study of
Howea, a palm genus endemic to Lord Howe
Island that has become a text-book example
of sympatric speciation following the teams
earlier work (see Nature 441, 210; 2006). To
provide a more coherent and comprehensive
understanding of this emerging model
system, the team analysed data on
abundance, juvenile recruitment, pollination
and genetic variation in the two species.
Genetic structure within species was found to
be low, although some weak isolation by
distance is detectable, and gene flow
between species appears to be extremely
limited. They conclude that speciation in
Howea was indeed sympatric, although under
certain strict definitions it may be called
parapatric. Mol. Ecol. 18, 3629 (2009).
Contact: Prof. Vincent Savolainen
(v.savolainen@kew.org)

Canary Islands

Probability of
presence

M. Hamilton

Limonium bahamense

: 0.99

: 0.00

Variation in nuclear microsatellites has been used

to investigate genetic diversity and differentiation
of two tetraploid members of tribe Sanguisorbeae
(Rosaceae) endemic to the Canary Islands,
Bencomia exstipulata and B. caudata. Clear
genetic differentiation between the two natural
populations of B. exstipulata was detected and
Bayesian cluster analysis revealed a geographical
structure with distinct genetic groups on the
different islands. Strong genetic differentiation
and low genetic diversity in the B. exstipulata
population from Tenerife suggest a recent
population bottleneck, perhaps caused by the
most recent major volcanic eruption, for this
natural locality. Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 160, 429 (2009).
Contact: Dr Mike Fay (m.fay@kew.org)

Arecaceae

C. Godfray

Supertree and supermatrix methods have great

potential in building the tree of life and yet
they remain controversial, with most workers
opting for one approach or the other, but
rarely both. In a recent publication, Bill Baker
(Kew) and collaborators at the Natural History
Museum (London), Imperial College, the
University of Copenhagen and Cornell
University have used both methods in parallel
to build the first phylogenetic trees containing
all genera of palms. The analyses use the
largest dataset yet for palms, comprising over
20,000 characters from 14 DNA regions,
morphology and restriction fragments studies.
This work demonstrates the value of pursuing
both supertree and supermatrix approaches,
while highlighting the need for further
refinements in supertree methods. The
resultant trees have contributed to the recent
re-classification of palms and are being utilised
widely in comparative studies of the family.
Syst. Biol. 58, 240 (2009).

Hyphaene compressa.

FAMILY
TREATMENTS

Contact: Dr Bill Baker (w.baker@kew.org)

F. Forest

Rubiaceae
A group from Kew and Edinburgh University
have evaluated Rubiaceae from data held in
the World Checklist of Rubiaceae
(http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/rubiaceae). Analyses
show that although the family is widespread,
and occurs in all major regions of the world
except the Antarctic, it is predominantly a
group of the tropics. There are 13,443 species
and 611 genera, which confirms that
Rubiaceae is the fourth largest angiosperm
family. Psychotria is the largest genus in the
family, with 1,902 species, making it the third
largest genus of angiosperms. Conversely,
most genera (72%) have fewer than ten
species, and 211 genera are monotypic.

Contact: Dr Aaron Davis (a.davis@kew.org).

O.Maurin

Hyperacanthus sp. nov. from eastern Madagascar. One

of more than 200 Rubiaceae species from Madagascar
still awaiting a scientific name.

Sapindaceae
The economically important Sapindaceae
(soapberry family), which comprises about
1,900 species mainly found in the tropical
regions of the world, was the subject of a
recent phylogenetic analysis led by Sven Buerki
from the University of Neuchtel and
collaborators from Kew and several other
institutions in Spain, Sweden, Australia,
Switzerland and the USA. The infrafamilial
classification of the family and its relationships
with the previously recognised Aceraceae and
Hippocastanaceae (now included in an
expanded definition of Sapindaceae) have
been debated for decades. This phylogenetic
study, based on eight DNA sequence regions
and including 85 of the 141 genera recognised
within the family, confirmed a high level of
paraphyly and polyphyly at the subfamilial and
tribal levels and even challenges the
monophyletic status of several genera.
Informal groupings are proposed, which will
serve as basis for a new classification of
Sapindaceae. Mol. Phyl. Evol. 51, 238 (2009).
Contact: Dr Flix Forest (f.forest@kew.org)
7

Carol Furness has studied the remarkable

pollen development that occurs in the
epacrid subfamily Styphelioideae (Ericaceae),
a group of small scleromorphic trees or shrubs
found mainly in Australia and New Zealand. In
many epacrids, there is variable sterility in the
pollen tetrad, producing tetrads, triads, dyads
and monads. Genetically programmed cell
death of three of the four male meiotic
products occurs only in species of
Leucopogon and Styphelia (Styphelioideae:
Styphelieae), so that pollen is dispersed as
pseudomonads. In these species, nuclear
migration followed by asymmetric cytokinesis
occurs within each tetrad. Pseudomonad
development represents a highly unusual
feature that parallels early female
development in most angiosperms; the only
other family where such pseudomonads occur
is Cyperaceae. By mapping pollen data onto
a molecular phylogeny of Ericaeae, Carol
proposes a hypothesis for pollen evolution in
the family. Int. J. Plant Sci. 170, 476 (2009).
Contact: Dr Carol Furness (c.furness@kew.org)

C. Furness/RBG Kew

Rubiaceae species are particularly vulnerable to

extinction due to high levels of endemism,
otherwise restricted distributions and ecological
sensitivity. Based on an estimate that there are
actually around 16,000 species of Rubiaceae
(i.e. over 2,500 species requiring scientific
names) it will take around 45 years before the
species diversity in the family is satisfactorily
enumerated, if we continue to describe species
at the current rate. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard.
96, 68 (2009).

Xanthoceras sorbifolium

Ericaceae

TEM section of an asymmetric tetrad of Leucopogon

parviflorus, with one large microspore with a large
functional nucleus (fn) and organelle band (o), and two
(out of three) smaller microspores visible with
degenerating nuclei (n). Exine (e) is developing around
the tetrad and two (out of three) apertures are visible
(a). The tetrad is enclosed in callose (c). Scale bar 2 m.

RBG Kew

Millennium Seed Bank partners celebrate the banking of seed from 10% of the worlds wild
plant species. Inset: Seed of Musa itinerans, the 24,200th species to be banked.

Millennium Seed Bank Partnership

Achieves 10% Target
The Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) partnership,
founded and led by the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, has achieved its target, set in
2000, of banking seed from 10% of the
worlds wild plant species by 2010. The
occasion was marked on 15 October 2009 by
an official ceremony to bank seed from the
24,200th species Musa itinerans.
This pink, wild banana from China is an
important food for wild Asian elephants and a
valuable genetic resource for breeding new
varieties of banana, but the species is
increasingly under threat in the wild as its
forest habitat is cleared for commercial banana
production. Seed was collected in
southwestern China by the local MSB partner,

the Kunming Institute of Botany (Chinese

Academy of Sciences).
The second phase of the MSB partnership will
run from 2010 to 2020, with a new target of
banking seed from 25% of the worlds plant
species. This phase will focus on threats to
human wellbeing food security, sustainable
energy, loss of biodiversity and climate
change by safeguarding wild plant diversity
and enabling its use through making seeds,
scientific information and expertise available
to organisations involved in researching and
delivering the sustainable use of plants and
the restoration of damaged vegetation.
Contact: Dr Paul Smith (p.smith@kew.org)

Plant Conservation for

the Next Generation
The scientific celebration of Kew's 250th
anniversary was held at Kew, 12-16 October
2009. This took the form of a conference
entitled Plant Conservation for the Next
Decade. The Minister for Marine and Natural
Environment, Huw Irranca-Davies MP, officially
opened the conference, and one of Kews
previous directors, Ghillean Prance, gave the
opening plenary lecture on the history of
conservation at Kew. Other plenary lectures
were given by Peter Crane (another previous
Kew director), and Sara Oldfield (Secretary
General, Botanic Gardens Conservation
International), and Peter Raven (President,
Missouri Botanical Garden) gave the address at
the conference dinner. During the main sessions,
200 delegates from 34 countries participated in
discussions of policies and politics, management
and restoration, human cultures, agriculture,
conservation technology and setting
conservation priorities. Steve Hopper (Kews
current director) presented a summary of the
conference in the closing session.
Contact: Dr Mike Fay (m.fay@kew.org)

AWARDS
RHS Associate of Honour
Tony Kirkham was presented with the
Associate of Honour of the Royal
Horticultural Society at an awards lunch on
6 July 2009 during the Hampton Court
Flower Show. The honour, held by no
more than 100 people at any time, is for
British nationals who have rendered
distinguished service to horticulture in the
course of their working life.
Anniversary Medal

PhDs

NEW BOOKS

The following PhD students, co-supervised by

Kew staff, have successfully defended their
theses recently:

The Wild Flora of Kew Gardens: a Cumulative

Checklist from 1759 (by T. Cope; Kew
Publishing, 2009; ISBN 978 1 84246 401 4)
details plants that have been recorded
growing in a wild state within Kew or its
periphery, and all British natives cultivated in
the Gardens, for which there is reliable
documentation. Including nearly 2,000 taxa, it
demonstrates how the wild flora of the Kew
estate has changed over its 250 years. 30
from www.kewbooks.com.

Itayguara Ribeiro da Costa, Evolutionary

studies in Myrtaceae: cytotaxonomic and
phylogenetic aspects of Myrteae emphasising
Psidium and related genera (April 2009).
Olwen Grace, Contributions to the systematics
and biocultural value of Aloe L. (Asphodelaceae)
(June 2009).
M. Murphy Thomas, Evolution of the beetle
daisy (June 2009).
James Tosh, Biogeography of Madagascan
Rubiaceae: case studies from the AfroMadagascan genus Tricalysia and the
pantropical genus Ixora (June 2009).
Charlie Heatubun, Systematics and evolution
of the palm genus Areca (July 2009).

The Timetree of Life (eds. S.B. Hedges & S.

Kumar; Oxford University Press, 2009; ISBN
978 0 19 953503 3) is the first book compiling
dated phylogenetic trees for all major groups
of organisms. Four chapters (magnoliids,
eudicots, eurosid I & eurosid II) were written by
Kew researchers. All chapters are available
from www.timetree.org/book.php.

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

Steve Hopper was unexpectedly awarded

the Missouri Botanical Garden 150th
Anniversary Medal by Peter Raven at the
gardens gala dinner on 30 May 2009.
Book Awards
Mabberleys Plant-Book (by D.J. Mabberley;
Cambridge, 2008) was awarded the Engler
Medal in Silver (2007-8) on 12 August
2009 by the International Association for
Plant Taxonomy at the first meeting of
BioSyst EU in Leiden. This medal is awarded
annually for an outstanding publication in
monographic or floristic plant systematics.
Genera Palmarum: Evolution and
Classification of the Palms (by J. Dransfield,
N.W. Uhl, C.B. Asmussen-Lange, W.J. Baker,
M.M. Harley & C.E. Lewis; Kew Publishing,
2008) won the 2009 Annual Literature
Award (Technical) from the Council on
Botanical and Horticultural Libraries.

Editorial advisory team

Editor
Production Editor
Design

Dr M. Fay
Dr G. Kite
Design & Photography,
RBG Kew

A. Barker, Dr W. Baker, G. Bromley, Dr C. Clennett, Dr C. Clubbe,

Dr F. Forest, P. Griffiths, Dr R. de Kok, Dr E. Lucas, N. McGough, M.
Ramsay, N. Rothwell, Dr P. Rudall, Prof. M. Simmonds, Dr B. Spooner,
Dr N. Taylor, Dr P. Toorop, R. Wilford

Published in April and October.

To be included on the mailing list, please contact Geoffrey Kite (g.kite@kew.org)

Printed on 100% recycled, uncoated paper.

8