A taxonomic monograph of Ipomoea integrated across phylogenetic scales.

Taxonomic monographs have the potential to make a unique contribution to the understanding of global biodiversity. However, such studies, now rare, are often considered too daunting to undertake within a realistic time frame, especially as the world's collections have doubled in size in recent times. Here, we report a global-scale monographic study of morning glories (Ipomoea) that integrated DNA barcodes and high-throughput sequencing with the morphological study of herbarium specimens.

Accumulation over evolutionary time as a major cause of biodiversity hotspots in conifers.

Biodiversity hotspots are important for understanding how areas of high species richness form, but disentangling the processes that produce them is difficult. We combine geographical ranges, phylogenetic relationships and trait data for 606 conifer species in order to explore the mechanisms underlying richness hotspot formation. We identify eight richness hotspots that overlap known centres of plant endemism and diversity, and find that conifer richness hotspots occur in mountainous areas within broader regions of long-term climate stability.

Widespread mistaken identity in tropical plant collections.

Specimens of plants and animals preserved in museums are the primary source of verifiable data on the geographical and temporal distribution of organisms. Museum datasets are increasingly being uploaded to aggregated regional and global databases (e.g.

Taxonomy in the electronic age and an e-monograph of the papaya family (Caricaceae) as an example.

The need for taxonomists to take full advantage of biodiversity informatics has been clear for at least 10 years. Significant progress has been made in providing access to taxonomic resources online, including images of specimens (especially types), original species descriptions, and georeferenced collection data. However, in spite of persuasive calls for e-monography, there are few, if any, completed project, even though monographic research is the only mechanism for reducing synonymous names, which are estimated to comprise 50% of all published names.

Serendipitous backyard hybridization and the origin of crops.

Backyard gardens, dump heaps, and kitchen middens are thought to have provided important venues for early crop domestication via generation of hybrids between otherwise isolated plant species. However, this process has rarely been demonstrated empirically. For the majority of polyploid crops, it remains uncertain to what extent hybridization and polyploidization preceded domestication or were precipitated by human activities.