Revision of Pycnandra subgenus Pycnandra (Sapotaceae), a genus endemic to New Caledonia
Ulf Swenson A C and Jérôme Munzinger BA Department of Phanerogamic Botany, Swedish Museum of Natural History, PO Box 50007, 10405 Stockholm, Sweden.
B IRD, UMR AMAP, Laboratoire de Botanique et d’Écologie Végétale Appliquées, Herbarium NOU, F-98848, Nouvelle-Calédonie; IRD, UMR AMAP, Montpellier, F-34000, France.
C Corresponding author. Email: Ulf.Swenson@nrm.se
Australian Systematic Botany 22(6) 437-465 https://doi.org/10.1071/SB09029
Submitted: 16 June 2009 Accepted: 22 September 2009 Published: 21 December 2009
Abstract
Pycnandra Benth. is a member of the pantropical family Sapotaceae (Chrysophylloideae) and the Niemeyera complex, a group that is found in Australia and New Caledonia. Generic limits in the complex have been problematic and Pycnandra is here given a circumscription to include the entire clade that is restricted to New Caledonia. Several lineages are therefore relegated to the subgeneric level that will subsequently be revised. In a first step, we revise P. subgenus Pycnandra with 12 recognised species, of which seven (P. atrofusca, P. cylindricarpa, P. glaberrima, P. linearifolia, P. longipetiolata, P. paucinervia and P. viridiflora) are described as new. Subgenus Pycnandra is endemic to Grande Terre, the main island of New Caledonia. The members grow in a wide range of habitats from dry maquis vegetation to moist humid forest, from sea level to the higher massif, and on ultramafic soils to schist and greywacke. Diagnostic characters for Pycnandra include absence of staminodes, a single-seeded fruit, plano-convex cotyledons and lack of endosperm. A glabrous ovary is a useful character distinguishing P. subgenus Pycnandra from the congeners, although there are two exceptions. P. viridiflora is included in the subgenus even though it has a pubescent ovary and Ochrothallus wagapensis is excluded despite a glabrous ovary. Because of past and present mining and logging activities in New Caledonia, conservation assessments are urgently needed. Preliminary IUCN Red List assessments are here provided for all members of the subgenus Pycnandra. Three species (P. longipetiolata, P. paniensis and P. paucinervia) are proposed the IUCN status Endangered and another (P. viridiflora) is proposed to be Critically Endangered.
Acknowledgements
We are especially grateful to Pete Lowry for comments on the manuscript, Jens Klackenberg who checked the Latin diagnoses, and to Emma Hultén who drew the illustrations. We thank two anonymous reviewers who provided valuable comments on the manuscript. For enthusiastic field company in New Caledonia we direct our thanks to Daniel and Irène Létocart, Jean-Pierre Butin, Christian Létocart, Rémy Amice, Odile Chapelle and Gildas Gâteblé (who also managed to get flowers on the cutting of Pycnandra paucinervia). We extend our commemoration of Henri Blaffart, a close friend who worked for Conservation International on the Panié range project with whom J. M. collected the unique specimen of P. linearifolia. Henri Blaffart died in a tragic and unexpected accident in March 2008. Philippe Morat and Christiane Tirel helped with various issues in the Paris collections. We are grateful to the Conservation authorities of the North and South Provinces of New Caledonia (DDEE and DENV), which provided us with collecting permits. Financial support has been received from the Swedish Research Council and the European SYNTHESYS program to Ulf Swenson for ongoing phylogenetic, biogeographic and conservation research of the pantropical family Sapotaceae.
Anderberg AA, Swenson U
(2003) Evolutionary lineages in Sapotaceae (Ericales): a cladistic analysis based on ndhF sequence data. International Journal of Plant Sciences 164, 763–773.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
[accessed June 2009].
Jaffré T
(2005) Conservation programmes in New Caledonia, western Pacific: in place for the dry forest, but urgently needed for the ultramafic vegetation. Journal of Botanic Gardens Conservation International 2, 13.
Jaffré T,
Bouchet P, Veillon JM
(1998) Threatened plants of New Caledonia: is the system of protected areas adequate? Biodiversity and Conservation 7, 109–135.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Jaffré T,
Rigault F, Munzinger J
(2008) Identification and characterization of floristic groups in dry forests relicts of a west coast region of New Caledonia. Pacific Conservation Biology 14, 128–145.
McNeill J,
Barrie FR,
Burdet HM,
Demoulin D,
Hawksworth DL,
Marhold K,
Nicolson DH,
Prado J,
Silva PC,
Skog JE,
Wiersema JH, Turland NJ
(2006) International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (Vienna Code). Adopted by the seventeenth international botanical congress Vienna, Austria, July 2005. Regnum Vegetabile 146, 1–568.
Moore S
(1921) A systematic account of the plants collected in New Caledonia by Prof. R. H. Compton: Sapotaceae. Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany 45, 350–355.
Morat P, Chalopin M
(2007) Contribution à l’étude des Malvaceae, Sterculieae de la Nouvelle-Calédonie: nouvelles espèces dans le genre Acropogon Schltr. Adansonia 29, 93–104.
Munzinger J, Swenson U
(2009) Three new species of Planchonella (Sapotaceae) with a dichotomous and an online key to the genus in New Caledonia. Adansonia 31, 175–189.
Munzinger J,
McPherson G, Lowry PP
(2008) A second species in the endemic New Caledonian genus Gastrolepis (Stemonuraceae) and its implications for the conservation status of high-altitude maquis vegetation: coherent application of the IUCN Red List criteria is urgently needed in New Caledonia. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 157, 775–783.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Myers N,
Mittermeier RA,
Mittermeier CG,
da Fonseca GAB, Kent J
(2000) Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403, 853–858.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
PubMed |
Pillon Y, Nooteboom HP
(2009) A new species of Symplocos (Symplocaceae) from Mont Panié (New Caledonia). Adansonia 31, 191–196.
Pillon Y,
Hopkins HC, Bradford JC
(2008) Two new species of Cunonia (Cunoniaceae) from New Caledonia. Kew Bulletin 63, 419–431.
Saunders RMK, Munzinger J
(2007) A new species of Goniothalamus (Annonaceae) from New Caledonia, representing a significant range extension for the genus. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 155, 497–503.
Smedmark JEE,
Swenson U, Anderberg AA
(2006) Accounting for variation of substitution rates through time in Bayesian phylogeny reconstruction of Sapotoideae (Sapotaceae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39, 706–721.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
PubMed |
Swenson U, Anderberg AA
(2005) Phylogeny, character evolution, and classification of Sapotaceae (Ericales). Cladistics 21, 101–130.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Swenson U,
Bartish IV, Munzinger J
(2007a) Phylogeny, diagnostic characters, and generic limitation of Australasian Chrysophylloideae (Sapotaceae, Ericales): evidence from ITS sequence data and morphology. Cladistics 23, 201–228.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Swenson U,
Munzinger J, Bartish IV
(2007b) Molecular phylogeny of Planchonella (Sapotaceae) and eight new species from New Caledonia. Taxon 56, 329–354.
Swenson U,
Lowry PP,
Munzinger J,
Rydin C, Bartish IV
(2008a) Phylogeny and generic limits in the Niemeyera complex of New Caledonian Sapotaceae: evidence of multiple origins of the anisomerous flower. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 49, 909–929.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
PubMed |
Swenson U,
Richardson JE, Bartish IV
(2008b) Multi-gene phylogeny of the pantropical subfamily Chrysophylloideae (Sapotaceae): evidence of generic polyphyly and extensive morphological homoplasy. Cladistics 24, 1006–1031.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Tirel C, McPherson G
(2006) Elaeocarpus tremulus Tirel & McPherson, nouvelle espèce d’Elaeocarpaceae de Nouvelle-Calédonie. Adansonia 28, 137–141.
Triono T,
Brown AHD,
West JG, Crisp MD
(2007) A phylogeny of Pouteria (Sapotaceae) from Malesia and Australasia. Australian Systematic Botany 20, 107–118.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
Venter S, Munzinger J
(2007) Paphia paniensis (Ericaceae), a new species from New Caledonia critically compared with P. neocaledonica. New Zealand Journal of Botany 45, 503–508.
Vink W
(1957) Revision of the Sapotaceae of the Malaysian area in a wider sense. X. Leptostylis. XII. Pycnandra. Nova Guinea, n.s. 8, 87–124.
Vink W
(1958) Revision of the Sapotaceae of the Malaysian area in a wider sense. XIII. Chrysophyllum L. Blumea 9, 21–74.
