Science and Technology Production

Geographical diversification of tribes Epilobieae, Gongylocarpeae, and Onagreae (Onagraceae) in North America, based on parsimony analysis of endemicity and track compatibility analysis

Articulo

Authorship:

KATINAS, LILIANA ; Crisci, J. V. ; Wagner, W.L. ; Hoch, P.

Date:

2004

Publishing House and Editing Place:

Missouri Botanical Garden Press

Magazine:

ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN, vol. 91 (pp. 159-185) Missouri Botanical Garden Press

Summary *

Tribes Epilobieae, Gongylocarpeae, and Onagreae, which form a monophyletic branch in the family Onagraceae, represent a biogeographic unit since almost all of their genera are endemic to or have had their major basal radiation in the Madrean Floristic Region of southwestern North America. Parsimony analysis of endemicity (PAE) and panbiogeography (track compatibility analysis) were performed in order to seek the historical explanations that led to the high diversity and endemicity. Twenty-one areas of endemism were delimited on the basis of previous biogeographic schemes and several endemic taxa (plants and animals): Arctic, Canadian, Appalachian, Atlantic and Gulf Coastal, North American Prairies, Vancouverian, Rocky Mountains, Great Basin, Californian, Mojavean, Sonoran, Chihuahuan, Tamaulipan, Sierra Madre Occidental, Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Mexican Altiplano, Sierra Madre Oriental, Sierra Madre del Sur, Neotropical, East Palearctic, and West Palearctic. Distributional data of 173 species of Epilobieae, Gongylocarpeae, and Onagreae were used in the analysis (cultivated, naturalized, or adventicious taxa were not included). Species occurring only in one area of endemism are not informative regarding area relationships and therefore were used exclusively in support of the delimitation of areas of endemism. Four area cladograms resulted in PAE analysis. The strict consensus PAE cladogram shows four main groups of areas: northern North America, the central Mexican areas, western North America, and eastern North America. Application of track compatibility analysis resulted in two strongly supported generalized tracks: one includes eastern North American areas, and the other includes the western North American areas. PAE and panbiogeography show that the distributional patterns of Epilobieae, Gongylocarpeae, and Onagreae suggest a close relationship between eastern and western North America, with both areas more related to the Neotropical area than to the Palearctic, and a rather weak association between northern North America and Asia. The establishment of two tracks in eastern and western North America that do not strongly connect North America with Asia or other continents, do not reject other author’s hypotheses of such continental connections. Tribes Epilobieae, Gongylocarpeae, and Onagreae display a biogeographical history that may differ from those of other taxa, but that can coexist at the same time. The eastern and western tracks show that two ancestral biotas existed at both sides of North America, with the species of each track sharing a common history. Information provided by the agent in SIGEVA