The phylogeny, biogeography and morphological evolution of Gaultheria (Ericaceae) from Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

Phylogenetic relationships within Gaultheria L. from Australia and New Zealand were examined by using DNA sequence data from matK, ndhF, nrITS, waxy and lfy. In the combined parsimony and maximum likelihood analyses, all Australia/New Zealand species form a clade that is sister to a clade of temperate South American species. Optimisation of morphological characters that have been emphasised in classifications of Gaultheria onto the molecular phylogeny revealed that, within the Australia/New Zealand clade, non-fleshy fruiting calyces, berries and solitary-flowered inflorescences each evolved twice, from fleshy fruiting calyces, capsules and multiple-flowered inflorescences, respectively. A historical biogeographical analysis that included the temperate southern hemisphere element in Gaultheria supports a South American origin of the Australia/New Zealand clade, followed by three dispersal events from New Zealand to Australia. Whether the origin is from temperate or tropical South America is ambiguous in our analysis.

Extent and timing of floristic exchange between Australian and Asian rain forests

“…For example, phylogenetic evidence indicates that the sister of the Australian‐centred epacrid clade (Ericaceae subfamily Styphelioideae) is subfamily Vaccinioideae (Kron et al. , 1999), which is Northern Hemisphere‐centred, apart from some highly derived taxa (Bush et al. , 2009).…”

“…Additionally, it remains possible that some important clades only reached Australia late in the history of the supercontinent. For example, phylogenetic evidence indicates that the sister of the Australian-centred epacrid clade (Ericaceae subfamily Styphelioideae) is subfamily Vaccinioideae (Kron et al, 1999), which is Northern Hemisphere-centred, apart from some highly derived taxa (Bush et al, 2009). Macrofossil evidence shows the presence of at least two lineages of epacrids in Australia in the early Oligocene, well before contact between Australia and Southeast Asia (Jordan & Hill, 1996).…”

Assessing the impact of phylogenetic incongruence on taxonomy, floral evolution, biogeographical history, and phylogenetic diversity

“…In contrast, combined data of two plastid loci ( rbcL and rps16 intron) and nuclear ITS sequences, placed H. orientale within the neotropical (i.e., confi ned to the American tropics) Hedyosmum , with a lineage composed of several Central American and Caribbean species (all belonging to subgenus Hedyosmum ) inferred as fi rst diverging ( Antonelli and Sanmartín, 2011 ). The extant amphi-Pacifi c disjunction in tropical Asia and America of Hedyosmum is a pattern also shared by some other taxa, e.g., Persea , Gautheria , and Symplocaceae ( Bush et al, 2009 ;Li et al, 2011a ;Fritsch et al, 2014 ). In Hedyosmum , it remains largely unexplored how the genus occupied its extant distribution in Asia and the neotropics and whether inferences of biogeographical history can be affected by phylogenetic confl ict.…”

Ancient Gondwana break‐up explains the distribution of the mycoheterotrophic family Corsiaceae (Liliales)

“…This incongruence indicates that ancient vicariance patterns may have been obscured by more recent dispersal and/or extinction events. Subsequent biogeographical inferences based on dated phylogenies of many groups, such as Aristotelia (Elaeocarpaceae), Gaultheria (Ericaceae) and Muehlenbeckia (Polygonaceae), indicated that long-distance dispersal between Australasia and South America is the most likely explanation of the distribution patterns of these taxa (Crayn et al, 2006;Bush et al, 2009;Schuster et al, 2013). Conversely, vicariance has been suggested to explain the extant distributions of a few other taxa (e.g.…”