Elaeocarpus sedentarius sp. nov. (Elaeocarpaceae)—morphometric analysis of a new, rare species from eastern Australia

Abstract

To assess the status of a putative new species of Elaeocarpus L. (Elaeocarpaceae) from north-eastern New South Wales (NSW), with respect to the morphologically similar E. blepharoceras Schltr. from New Guinea, we undertook morphometric analysis of 11 vegetative attributes measured on 11 specimens of the putative new species and eight of E. blepharoceras. Cluster analysis (flexible UPGMA) and ordination (PCC) separates highland specimens of E. blepharoceras from the NSW material plus lowland E. blepharoceras. Furthermore, the ordination shows some separation of the NSW material into Koonyum Range and Nightcap Range groups. Although it is not clearly differentiated from lowland E. blepharoceras on morphometric analysis, description of the NSW material as E. sedentarius D.J.Maynard & Crayn is justified by (1) additional features such as the anther awns (short and sparsely hairy in E. sedentarius and much longer and densely bristly in E. blepharoceras), variation in the number of locules (3(–4) in E. sedentarius and (2–)3 in E. blepharoceras), leaf margin features (short setae terminating veins on leaf margins of E. blepharoceras, lacking in E. sedentarius) and (2) geographic isolation (>2000 km) is likely to prevent gene flow. The distribution, relationships and conservation status of E. sedentarius are discussed.

Molecular phylogeny of trees species in Tripa Peat Swamp Forest, Aceh, Indonesia inferred by 5.8S nuclear gen

“…The previous study reported that several molecular phylogenetic studies on the families Elaeocarpaceae, as well as the genus Elaeocarpus, have been undertaken. The molecular studies using full sequence data from the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA (Maynard 2008). Zeng et al (2005) reported that phylogenetic relationships within families Moraceae have also used the 5.8S rRNA to predict phylogenetic of intra-species and inter-species within genus Morus (Moraceae).…”

A morphometric analysis of Struthanthus phillyreoides and S. dichotrianthus (Loranthaceae) suggests these represent one single variable species1,2

“…Rawlings and Ladiges 2001, Burke and Adams 2002, Flann et al 2008, Giles et al 2008, Maynard et al 2008. The three numerical techniques used here to evaluate the S. dichotrianthus-S. phillyreoides complex have been unable to conclusively separate specimens identified either as S. dichotrianthus or S. phillyreoides, or re-organize specimens in different taxonomic ranks as subspecies or variety, or separate them by geographical distribution, or confirm the variety described by Rizzini (1982).…”

“…The distance matrix was calculated by using Gower metric association measure (Gower, 1971). Gower has a built-in range-standardized method that is more suitable for constructing matrices when a mixture of two-state, multistate and quantitative data are present in a data set, because it gives them an equal weight (Gower 1971, Sneath and Sokal 1973, Milligan and Cooper 1988, Stuessy 1990, Crisp and Westo, 1993, Belbin 2006, Maynard et al 2008, particularly if there is a moderate proportion of missing characters (Belbin 2006). It is also able to analyze large data sets (Belbin 2006).…”

“…The values range from 0 (no correlation) to 1 (maximum correlation between characters and groups) (Belbin 1995). Many taxonomic works have used PCC successfully to find diagnostic characters (Crisp 1991, Burke and Adams 2002, Maynard 2008, Smith 2008.…”

“…Multidimensional scaling was chosen, as this technique is based on nonmetric relationship and it has been shown to be effective in representing phenetic patterns, (Belbin 1988, Faith et al 1987, Crisp 1991, Duretto and Ladiges 1997, Wills et al 2000, Copeland et al 2007, Maynard 2008. The program's default settings were used and combinations of two dimensional plots were generated from the data analysis.…”