A dated phylogeny shows Plio-Pleistocene climates spurred evolution of antibrowsing defences in the New Zealand flora.

Some plant traits may be legacies of coevolution with extinct megafauna. One example is the convergent evolution of 'divaricate' cage architectures in many New Zealand lineages, interpreted as a response to recently extinct flightless avian browsers whose ancestors arrived during the Paleogene period. Although experiments have confirmed that divaricate habit deters extant browsers, its abundance on frosty, droughty sites appears consistent with an earlier interpretation as a response to cold, dry Plio-Pleistocene climates.

Comparing diversity of fungi from living leaves using culturing and high-throughput environmental sequencing.

High-throughput sequencing technologies using amplicon approaches have changed the way that studies investigating fungal distribution are undertaken. These powerful and time-efficient technologies have the potential for the first time to accurately map fungal distributions across landscapes or changes in diversity across ecological or biological gradients of interest. There is no requirement for a fungus to form a fruiting body to be detected, and both culturable and nonculturable organisms can be detected.

Systematics of Kirk (Poaceae, Agrostidinae) - an endemic, threatened New Zealand grass genus.

A new species of the New Zealand endemic grass , is described. The new species is segregated from and compared with and . occurs mostly in lightly shaded areas of seasonally dry alluvial forest.

Pulling the sting out of nettle systematics - A comprehensive phylogeny of the genus Urtica L. (Urticaceae).

The genus Urtica L. is subcosmopolitan, found on all continents (except Antarctica) and most extratropical islands and ranges from Alaska to Patagonia, Spitzbergen to the Cape and Camtschatka to the subantarctic islands. However, throughout its geographical range morphologically nearly indistinguishable species are found alongside morphologically quite disparate species, with the overall diversity of morphological characters extremely limited.

When do plant radiations influence community assembly? The importance of historical contingency in the race for niche space.

Plant radiations are widespread but their influence on community assembly has rarely been investigated. Theory and some evidence suggest that radiations can allow lineages to monopolize niche space when founding species arrive early into new bioclimatic regions and exploit ecological opportunities. These early radiations may subsequently reduce niche availability and dampen diversification of later arrivals.

Inclusion of chloroplast genes that have undergone expansion misleads phylogenetic reconstruction in the Chlorophyta.

Premise Of The Study: Chlorophytes comprise a substantial proportion of green plant diversity. However, sister-group relationships and circumscription of the classes Chlorophyceae, Trebouxiophyceae, and Ulvophyceae have been problematic to resolve. Some analyses support a sister relationship between the trebouxiophycean Leptosira and chlorophyceans, potentially altering the circumscription of two classes, also supported by a shared fragmentation in the chloroplast gene rpoB.

Intraspecific relationships among wood density, leaf structural traits and environment in four co-occurring species of Nothofagus in New Zealand.

Plant functional traits capture important variation in plant strategy and function. Recent literature has revealed that within-species variation in traits is greater than previously supposed. However, we still have a poor understanding of how intraspecific variation is coordinated among different traits, and how it is driven by environment.

Morphological and genetic evidence of contemporary intersectional hybridisation in Mediterranean Helichrysum (Asteraceae, Gnaphalieae).

Hybridisation is considered an important evolutionary phenomenon in Gnaphalieae, but contemporary hybridisation has been little explored within the tribe. Here, hybridisation between Helichrysum orientale and Helichrysum stoechas is studied at two different localities in the islands of Crete and Rhodes (Greece). Using three different types of molecular data (AFLP, nrDNA ITS sequences and cpDNA ndhF sequences) and morphological data, the aim is to provide simultaneous and direct comparisons between molecular and morphological variation among the parental species and the studied hybrid populations.

Genetic variation in Mediterranean Helichrysum italicum (Asteraceae; Gnaphalieae): do disjunct populations of subsp. microphyllum have a common origin?

The yellow-flowered everlasting daisy Helichrysum italicum (Asteraceae, Gnaphalieae) is widely distributed in the Mediterranean basin, where it grows in continuous and widespread populations in diverse open habitats. Helichrysum italicum subsp. microphyllum has a disjunct distribution in the Balearic Islands (Majorca and Dragonera), Corsica, Sardinia, Crete and Cyprus.

Biosystematics and conservation: a case study with two enigmatic and uncommon species of Crassula from New Zealand.

Background And Aims: Crassula hunua and C. ruamahanga have been taxonomically controversial. Here their distinctiveness is assessed so that their taxonomic and conservation status can be clarified.

Subfamilial relationships within Caryophyllaceae as inferred from 5' ndhF sequences.

DNA sequences of the 5' end of the chloroplast ndhF gene for 15 species of Caryophyllaceae have been analyzed by parsimony and neighbor-joining analyses. Three major clades are identified, with little or no support for monophyly of traditionally recognized subfamilies. The first of the three major clades identified (Clade I) is constituted by part of the subfamily Paronychioideae.