| BEN |
| BOTANICAL ELECTRONIC NEWS |
|---|
| ISSN 1188-603X |
| No. 473 October 17, 2013 | aceska@telus.net | Victoria, B.C. |
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ABSTRACT: Limnanthes douglasii R. Br. subsp. ornduffii E. G. Buxton (Limnanthaceae), a narrowly endemic meadowfoam from Moss Beach (Half Moon Bay) in San Mateo County, California, is described. Though it shares the morphological trait of being tetramerous with Limnanthes macounii Trel., an endemic species in British Columbia, Canada, it is not a sister taxon to L. macounii based on molecular sequence evidence. Limnanthes douglasii subsp. ornduffii appears in an unresolved group with other Limnanthes douglasii populations/subspecies. Molecular data coupled with morphological distinctiveness and geographical endemism provide a credible basis for recognizing the Moss Beach population as a Limnanthes douglasii subspecies. Data suggest that tetramerism in the genus has arisen more than once.
Limnanthes douglasii subsp. ornduffii is known from a single population just south of Moss Beach, San Mateo Co. In 1998, the meadowfoam was estimated to provide a nearly complete absolute cover on ca. 18 acres; however, its spatial distribution in the field has diminished somewhat (now ca. 90 percent), apparently due to greater competition from Stellaria media (L.)Vill., Fumaria officinalis L., Veronica chamaedrys L., Lythrum hyssopifolia L., and Poa annua L., and perhaps untimely plowing.
In 2008, a disjunct colony of three individuals grew in a field that appeared to have been cultivated in the past, west of the Half Moon Bay airport, approximately 2.4 km from the fallow field, but this stand was not found in 2009, 2010, or 2011.
Limnanthes douglasii subsp. ornduffii is morphologically distinct from all other entities in the Limnanthes douglasii complex in the USA based on its tetramerism and much smaller flowers, and is distinct from the only other tetramerous Limnanthes taxon, which occurs in British Columbia. In addition to a 1400 km (860 mi) geographical disjunction, floral size, nutlet differences, and leaf characters are distinctly dissimilar in the two taxa; the leaves in L. douglasii subsp. ornduffii are bipinnate to incised to the rachis, whereas those in L. macounii are pinnate.
Limnanthes douglasii subsp. ornduffii groups with some L. douglasii populations/subspecies and not with L. macounii in Meyers' et al. 2010 cladogram (Systematic Botany 35: 552-558). This clustering suggests that tetramerism has evolved more than once in the genus, thus tetramerous floral morphology is homoplastic within Limnanthes.
Repeated attempts to locate additional populations of a tetramerous meadowfoam along the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California have failed. Dr. Dean W. Taylor (independent botanist) has done floristic surveys in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties, and has searched agricultural settings along the coast from Santa Cruz toward Moss Beach without finding any meadowfoam populations.
The Moss Beach taxon is described at the rank of subspecies on the basis of its alignment with Limnanthes douglasii in the cladogram. Until additional data on the taxonomic, evolutionary, and biogeographic relationships of the Moss Beach plants are obtained that present greater resolution within sect. Limnanthes, this population warrants taxonomic recognition at the subspecific level.
ABSTRACT: The intriguing, red-fruited Crataegus tenuior has been known to the author for nearly 20 years and is finally described. The general appearance of Crataegus tenuior is of a small, rather delicate C. macracantha but it differs in possessing ± plane-sided nutlets, not a series Macracanthae character, conspicuously glandular leaf-teeth and variably glandular petioles, not normal characters of Crataegus macracantha Lodd. ex Loud. From sympatric forms of the latter species it also differs in its bright pink anthers. Multivariate analysis used to clarify the distinction from sympatric C. macracantha also illuminates the regional variation of the latter species. A new variety of the purple-fruited C. okanaganensis (series Purpureofructae) is also described which has longer thorns, larger leaves, fewer stamens and much more copiously hairy inflorescences than the other varieties. Crataegus okanaganensis var. longispina is described and illustrated.
1. Leaves deeply lobed, sometimes nearly to midrib; veins to sinuses;
stamens 20, anthers pink-purple; styles and nutlets ................
.......................... C. monogyna Jacq.
1. Leaves shallowly lobed; veils to sinuses lacking; stamens usually 10,
anthers cream or pink; styles and nutlets 2-4(-5).
2. Autumnal leaf color usually bronze; petioles eglandular; stamens 10,
anthers cream; sides of nutlets
strongly pitted ..... C. macracantha var._occidentalis (Britt.) Egglest.
2. Autumnal leaf color usually yellow; petioles more or less glandular;
stamens 10 or 20, anthers ivory (cream) to pink; sides of nutlets
smooth.
3. Stamens 20, anthers pale pink .................................
........... C. sheila-phippsiae J.B. Phipps & O'Kennon
3. Stamens 10, anthers pink or ivory (cream).
4. Plant habit lax; twigs in second year reddish-brown or deep
reddish-brown; leaf-teeth with conspicuous (to a ×10 lens)
glands; anthers pink; styles and nutlets 3(-4) ......
................. C. tenuior J.B. Phipps
4. Plant habit stiff; twigs in second year ± fawn or
grayish-fawn; leaf-teeth with very small (just
visible with a ×10 lens) or no glands; anthers ivory; styles
and nutlets 3-4(-5)
....... C. chrysocarpa Ashe var. chrysocarpa
Crataegus okanaganensis var. longispina J.B. Phipps Crataegus okanaganensis J.B. Phipps & O'Kennon (ser. Purpureofructae) is a large hawthorn with stout thorns, readily distinguished from Crataegus douglasii Lindl. and immediate allies not only by thorn measurements and fruit color but by the serial characteristic of typically large, pointed, fruiting sepals in contrast to the much smaller, often blunt ones found in ser. Douglasianae. The following key distinguishes the Purpureofructae of the Okanagan.
1. Leaf blades of a broader form, elliptic to broad-elliptic or
suborbiculate or broad-ovate to ovate-elliptic; lobes short, tips obtuse
to subacute; fruit oblong or subspherical.
2. Leaf blades elliptic to broad-elliptic or suborbiculate, lobes acute,
strikingly pale green at anthesis;
inflorescences only thinly hairy; sepals narrow-triangular; pomes
7-10 mm diam.,± oblong, claret in late August, becoming deep burgundy
in September............ C. orbicularis J.B. Phipps & O'Kennon
2. Leaf blades broad-ovate to ovate-elliptic, lobes subacute to obtuse,
mid green at anthesis; inflorescences densely pubescent; sepals
broad-triangular; pomes ± 12 mm diam., subglobose, bright or deep red
in August, becoming nearly black in September .......................
........................ Crataegus phippsii O'Kennon
1. Leaf blades narrow-ovate to rhombic-elliptic or elliptic else ovate to
rhombovate, lobes ± sharp; fruit ampulliform or rarely subsperical.
3. Thorns usually ± slender, 3-5(-7) cm; leaf-blades elliptic to
broad-elliptic or narrow-ovate to rhombovate, matte, deep dull
green; not coriaceous; stamens 10 or 20, anthers pink; sepals in
fruit suberect, broad, herbaceous; pomes deep burgundy in late August,
purple-black in September...................................
...................... Crataegus atrovirens J.B. Phipps & O'Kennon
3. Thorns usually ± stout, 2-4 cm; leaf-blades rhombovate, ovate or
elliptic-oblong, ± glossy, shiny mid to deep green, ± coriaceous;
stamens 5-10, anthers nearly always cream or white; sepals in
fruit erectopatent to reflexed, narrow; pomes bright to deeper red
late August, becoming dark purple in September.
4. Leaf blades 3.5-6 cm, coriaceous, without strongly impressed
venation adaxially, flattish to strongly concave, usually
mid-green until fall ......................................
...... Crataegus okanaganensis J.B. Phipps & O'Kennon
4. Leaf blades 4-8 cm, softly coriaceous, with distinctly impressed
venation adaxially, flattish to convex, usually deep green until
fall . Crataegus enderbyensis J.B. Phipps & O'Kennon
Watsonia was in transition to the New Journal of Botany and thus just escaped inclusion in my commentary "The urge for more impact: The demise of another venerable serial title" in the February 2011 issue of Taxon (60: 307-309). The flagship journal of the British Society of the British Isles (BSBI), Watsonia, with "roots back to 1836," ran for 63 years (1948-2010) and 28 volumes. RIP!
PDFs of articles in Watsonia are available gratis via BSBI's Digital Archive (http://archive.bsbi.org.uk/index.html) "an ongoing project to Digitise all [of] the BSBI's publications and make them available freely to everyone." Beware: The BSBI website is very comprehensive and attractively done; one could easily get hooked on it. By the way, the last issue of Watsonia in August 2010 (28: 103-122) has an important paper by C.A. Stace, "Classification by molecules: What's in it for field botanists?"; I wish I had been aware of Stace's paper when I wrote the reviews of various floras for the December 2012 and February 2013 issues of Taxon.
Because_Watsonia had become "much less favoured as an outlet for the publicationof botanical research conducted in our universities, research institutes, and botanic gardens" (that is, Watsonia sported few cladograms), the BSBI decided to launch, "in conjunction with Maney Publishing, a brand new journal with a broader outlook, both academically and geographically, to attract contributions from a wider range of authors, and in particular academics from UK, Ireland and Europe." "The New Journal of Botany has a northern and western European focus and is the new forum for communicating the results of scientific studies relating to the vascular plants and charophytes of this region.
Topics of particular interest are:
"The journal will retain the sections dealing with book reviews and British and Irish plant records which were a feature of Watsonia" (alas, BSBI's informative obituaries will appear in the Yearbook).
The enhancement and modernization of Watsonia into New Journal of Botany (NJB) are exceptionally nicely done: a size increase to A4 format (welcome cladograms), now standard for journals published outside the non-metric United States; a new cover design, with the cover color a cheerful, more representative national lime green replacing the previous dour forest green befitting namesake Watson; and the inclusion of "opinion articles . to provoke and stimulate thought and further research." Initially biannual, NJB with the April 2013 issue went triannual, issues to appear in April, August, and December.
The April 2013 issue has a fascinating review article derived from a September 2012 conference held in Edinburgh to commemorated the golden anniversary of the Atlas of the British flora: C.D. Preston, 2013, "Following the BSBI's lead: The influence of the Atlas of the British flora, 1962-2012," NJB 3(1): 2-14. Preston details how the 10 × 10-km grid mapping has transformed floristics in northwestern Europe. By 2012 over 10,000 species of plants and animals had been grid mapped for the British Isles alone.
I have two comments about the contents page: I puzzled over the pagination given as "pp. 2-14(13)" until realizing that it means "pp. 2-14 (13 pp.)." Space permitting, it would helpful to label opinion or review articles as such, and if derived from a conference or other meeting.
In all, NJB is a job very well done, except: I am not enamored of the new non-Merrillean name New Journal of Botany, or its acronym moniker NJB "to its friends," who, I trust, still include the folks at the Nordic (née Norwegian) Journal of Botany. [Perhaps acronyms should reflect chronology: NJB1, NJB2, etc.]
I make two additional points: (1) What is "new" now will soon be old. (2) The title New Journal of Botany evokes the chaotic hodgepodge of the J.-Bot. and Bot.-J. past, to wit: J. Bot. (Hooker) (1834-42), London J. Bot. (1842-48), Hooker's J. Bot. (1849-57), J. Bot. (1863-1942), Bot. J. (London) (1910-18), J. Bot. (2009-, online open access, http://www.hindawi.com/), not to mention the comparable German, Japanese, and especially French confusion beyond the Channel. A gutsier title might have been European Journal of Botany, though perhaps unwise in view of the currently shaky Euro. Incidentally, the title of the old journal Watsonia commemorated botanist and phytogeographer Hewett Cottrell Watson (1804-81; see R.D. Meikle, Watsonia 1: 3-5, 1948, and entry for Egerton under "History") as well as the eponymous bulbous iridaceous Watsonia (see P. Goldblatt, 1989, The genus Watsonia). The new title New Journal of Botany commemorates, well, I guess, "the urge for more impact," but also, one must concede, modernity and relevance.
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