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Pteroceltis tatarinowii Maxim. (Ulmaceae), one of the most widespread temperate canopy trees in mainland China, is the sole representative of the genus Pteroceltis. To illuminate the biogeographic and demographic history of this temperate tree species, we carried out a survey of chloroplast DNA sequence variation (trnS-trnG and psbA-trnH) within and among 28 populations (284 individuals in total) representing most of the distributional range of the species. Based on a total of 13 haplotypes identified, P. tatarinowii was found to harbor surprisingly high levels of haplotype and nucleotide diversity (h T = 0.71; π T = 2.83 × 10 −3 ), possibly associated with its long evolutionary history and wide-scale geographical distribution. Significant chloroplast DNA population subdivision was detected (G ST = 0.898; N ST = 0.938), suggesting low levels of recurrent gene flow through seeds among populations and significant phylogeographical structure (N ST > G ST , P < 0.05). The ancestral haplotypes show clear-cut geographical distribution, and most regions possess a unique set of haplotypes, suggesting multiple potential refugia of the species occurring in montane areas of South China. The haplotype mismatch distributions analysis indicates that populations from North China underwent a spatial northward expansion, which might reflect one of the repeated Pleistocene south-to-north shifts of temperate deciduous forest in North China following cold periods.

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Background: In Kurram district of Pakistan, people use medicinal plants to cure a variety of livestock diseases. This study was conducted with the aims to document the indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants used in veterinary practices in the district.Methods: Ethnoveterinary data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 97 participants that were purposely chosen at random locations and data was quantitatively analyzed using relative frequency of citation (RFC) and use value (UV).Results: In total 81 plants belonging to 43 families were recorded. Asteraceae and Lamiaceae were the most cited botanical families. The plants were used to treat 28 livestock diseases. Among the plant parts, leaves were the most used parts (38 %) followed by the flowers (13 %), seeds (10 %), stem (10 %), fruit (8 %), and roots (7 %). The results showed that (22) plants were used for digestive diseases, (10) for skin problems, (8) against flatulence, (7) as anthelmintic and as refrigerant, and (4) to treat diarrhea and as anti-inflammatory. Conclusions:The study provides an inventory of traditional ethnoveterinary plants from Kurram district of Pakistan for further phytochemical and pharmacological studies in order to explore their active ingredients.

In the current investigation, 16 samples of six species of the genus Polygonatum were collected from different geographical regions in China. Leaf micromorphological traits were studied in detail using scanning electron microscopy. About five-leaf samples were used for each species collected from different geographical regions. A significant variation was found in the foliar epidermal traits such as stomata types and their distribution, epidermal cell shape, anticlinal wall pattern, and various types of trichomes. Polygonal epidermal cells were observed in P. cyrtonema, P. odoratum, P. sibiricum, and P. filipes, rectangular in P. zanlanscianense and P. odoratum and irregular shape in P. filipes and P. zanlanscianense. Straight anticlinal wall pattern was observed in most of the species, but straight to little undulate was observed in P. cyrtonema, P. filipes, and P. zanlanscianense. Similarly, various shape stomata that are, oval, oblong, and elliptical and types that is, paracytic, anomocytic, and actinocytic have been observed. Based on the foliar traits, the P. odoratum and P. sibiricum were found closely related to one another. On the other hand, P. involucratum and P. zanlanscianense shows a strong association. However, P. filipes showed very less similarity with the other five species. Hence this study adds useful information that may be helpful in the further taxonomic classification of the taxa at subspecies level and was found significant in the correct identification and discrimination of the closely related taxa of the genus Polygonatum.