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Abstract Detail


Systematics Section/ASPT

Tippery, Nicholas [1], Peredo , Elena Lopez [2], Les, Donald [2].

New taxonomic and biogeographical insights in Nymphoides (Menyanthaceae).

Among aquatic plants, Nymphoides species have some of the widest variation in range sizes, vegetative habits, and reproductive systems. Worldwide the genus comprises about 50 species that occupy temperate and tropical habitats. Besides having evolved an array of inflorescence architectures to support their largely entomophilous flowers, Nymphoides species also exhibit various reproductive systems that include monomorphic and heterostylous hermaphroditism, gynodioecy and dioecy. Two of the four described dioecious species (N. aquatica and N. cordata) are native to North America, where their ranges overlap considerably. In addition, hybridization has been detected in their area of range overlap in the southeastern United States. In recent years two non-native species (N. cristata and N. indica) have joined the long-established exotic species N. peltata to augment the total number of adventive Nymphoides species. Furthermore, molecular phylogenetic methods have indicated the presence of two previously unreported species in the United States. One (N. humboldtiana, now understood to be genetically distinct from N. indica) likely represents the northern range extent of that neotropical species, in southern Texas. The other species, while clearly distinct from N. humboldtiana and N. indica, failed to match known DNA sequences of closely related neotropical species with which it shares yellow petals: N. fallax and N. grayana. Extensive genetic variation likely characterizes neotropical Nymphoides, and research will continue to explore the number of species and their respective ranges.

Broader Impacts:


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1 - University Of Wisconsin - Whitewater, Department Of Biological Sciences, Upham Hall, 800 W Main St, Whitewater, WI, 53190, USA
2 - University Of Connecticut, Department Of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, 75 N. Eagleville Road, Unit 3043, Storrs, CT, 06269-3043, USA

Keywords:
aquatic plants
Asterales
biogeography
flora
North America.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 1
Location: Franklin A/Hyatt
Date: Monday, July 9th, 2012
Time: 10:45 AM
Number: 1007
Abstract ID:933


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