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The taxonomy, reproductive biology and economic potential of Parkia (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae j in Africa and Madagascar. Three species of the pantropical woody genus Parkia are recognized from continental Africa (including SPo Tomtj, P . biglobosa, P . bicolor and P.Jilicoidea. A fourth species, P . madagascariensis, is confined to Madagascar. All have capitula of similar structure although details of shape vary. Relatives sharing this capitulum structure occur in the Far East and the Neotropics. Patterns of infraspecific variation are described for the mainland species. Parkiu biglobosa shows clinal variation in several leaf characters and P . clappertoniana must be regarded as synonymous. Parkia bicolor shows geographical variation especially in capitulum shapi and pod width, and P . Jilicoidea vanes geographically in its pod morphology. The red, balllike capitula are pollinated by bats; other visitors include birds, insects and non-flying mammals. In P . biglobosa a proportion of the capitula is functionally male. The pods of the African species contain mealy pulp. Dispersal involves mammals, especially primates, and birds. Information on uses, chemical composition of the seeds and insect pests is summarized.

Cunoniaceae are a family of shrubs and trees with 27 genera and ca. 335 species, mostly confined to tropical and wet temperate zones of the southern hemisphere. There are several known issues regarding generic limits, and the family also displays a number of intriguing long-range disjunctions. METHODS:We performed a phylogenomic study using the universal Angiosperms353 probe set for targeted sequence capture. We sampled 37 species covering all genera in the Cunoniaceae, and those in the three closely related families of the crown Oxalidales (Brunelliaceae, Cephalotaceae, and Elaeocarpaceae). We also performed analyses for molecular dating and ancestral area reconstruction. RESULTS:We recovered the topology (Cunoniaceae, (Cephalotaceae, (Brunelliaceae, Elaeocarpaceae))) and a well-resolved genus-level phylogeny of Cunoniaceae with strongly supported clades corresponding to all previously recognized tribes. As previously suspected, the genera Ackama and Weinmannia were recovered as paraphyletic. Australasia was inferred as the likely ancestral area for the family. CONCLUSIONS:The current distribution of Cunoniaceae is best explained by long-distance dispersal with a few possible cases of Australasian-American vicariance events. Extinctions may have been important in determining the mostly Oceanian distribution of this family while some genera in the tribe Cunonieae and in New Caledonia have undergone recent bursts of diversification. New generic diagnoses, 80 new combinations, and one new name are provided for a recircumscribed Ackama (including Spiraeopsis), a much smaller Weinmannia (mostly New World), and a resurrected Pterophylla to accommodate Old World taxa previously in Weinmannia.

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We reconstructed the evolutionary history of Codia, a plant genus endemic to the New Caledonia biodiversity hotspot in the southwest Pacific, using three single-copy nuclear genes. It seems likely that more than half of Codia species have a hybrid origin, but in the absence of cytological information, it is not known whether polyploids occur. Adaptation to ultramafic soils is possibly a plesiomorphic character for the entire genus. We found that species of hybrid origin can have some morphological characters absent in putative parental species, that is, they exhibit transgressive phenotypes. There is evidence of considerable range alteration post-origin in several species because some likely parental species of hybrid taxa no longer co-occur and are confined to putative rainforest refugia; in some cases, hybrid species do not now co-occur with either of their parental species. These results have implications for the design of conservation strategies, for example, prioritization of parental species for ex-situ conservation and preservation of the 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).

Canopy observations of the rain forest tree Parkia velutina (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae) in Amazonian Brazil indicate that it is pollinated by night-flying bees. The small red flowers are organized into spherical heads; they open in the late afternoon and attract Megalopta bees (Halictidae: Augochlorini) which forage for pollen after dark. In contrast to the numerous bat-pollinated species of Parkia, no nectar was detected. Nocturnal melittophily is proposed as a possible intermediate stage in the evolution of chiropterophily from diurnal entomophily in Parkia.

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A cladistic analysis of the tropical mimosoid genus Parkia was undertaken to examine relationships among the 31 species and to test the monophyly of the three recognized sections. The implications of the cladogram to the evolution of batpollination and biogeography were also explored. The analysis, based on 52 morphological characters, resulted in 408 most parsimonious trees. A consensus tree supports the monophyly of sections'Parkia and Platyparkia, but section Sphaeroparkia is paraphyletic. The latter section is distinguished by a capitulum of all fertile flowers, a plesiomorphic attribute in this analysis. Characters supporting the monophyly of section Platyparkia include an inflorescence with distal nectar flowers having exserted styles, and fruits with seeds in two rows. Section Parkia is characterized by having sterile basal flowers with nectar flowers just above them, and calyx lobes included in bud. Bat-pollination was mapped onto one of the most parsimonious cladograms to examine the evolution of pollination syndromes within the genus. Our phylogeny is consistent with a single origin of bat-pollination and indicates that entomophilous species of Parkia are basal rather than secondarily derived. Sections Platyparkia and Parkia are separate lineages within the bat-pollinated clade and have independently developed capitulum types adapted to chiropterophily. Characters that are associated with chiropterophily include specialized nectar-producing flowers and basifixed anthers. Several characters, including presence of a staminodial fringe, a nectar ring, and pollen with verrucate sculpturing on the exine, probably represent increasing specialization for bat-pollination. The cladogram supports a South American origin for Parkia but is not consistent with a Gondwanan vicariance event as is usually hypothesized to explain its amphi-Atlantic distribution.