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Taxonomy, biogeography and evolution of plants
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 37(6)

Standing on the shoulders of giants: molecular data confirm Kükenthal’s systematic placement of the Australian endemic Carex archeri (Cyperaceae)

Ana Morales-Alonso https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1497-1070 A B * , Karen Wilson https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7419-8222 C , Kerry A. Ford D , Mónica Míguez B , Pedro Jiménez-Mejías B and Santiago Martín-Bravo B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Departamento de Biología, Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Calle Tulipán sn, E-28933 Móstoles, Spain.

B Área de Botánica, Departamento de Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Bioquímica, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Carretera Utrera, kilómetro 1, E-41013 Seville, Spain.

C National Herbarium of New South Wales, Botanic Gardens of Sydney, Australian Botanic Garden, Locked Bag 6002, Mount Annan, NSW 2567, Australia.

D Allan Herbarium, Landcare Research–Manaaki Whenua, PO Box 69040, Lincoln, Canterbury, 7608, New Zealand.

* Correspondence to: aimoralons@gmail.com

Handling Editor: Jeremy Bruhl

Australian Systematic Botany 37, SB24004 https://doi.org/10.1071/SB24004
Submitted: 12 March 2024  Accepted: 23 September 2024  Published: 29 October 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing.

Abstract

Archer’s sedge (Carex archeri Boott) is a small, rare (or possibly overlooked by collectors due to the diminutive size) species restricted to alpine and subalpine habitats in south-eastern mainland Australia and Tasmania. The systematic placement has been obscure with the species having been historically associated with sections in four of the six recognised Carex subgenera. We investigated the placement of C. archeri by addition to the available Carex molecular phylogenetic framework. Our results support C. archeri belonging to sect. Junciformes (in subg. Psyllophorae), making this the only representative of the subgenus in Australia. This placement was first proposed by Kükenthal (1909) who regarded C. archeri as a synonym of the New Zealand endemic C. acicularis Boott but our phylogenetic analyses support C. archeri as a separate taxon. Our approach highlights the utility of molecular barcoding for elucidating systematic relationships of poorly known taxa. Biogeographic reconstruction suggests Late Miocene dispersal from South America to the south-western Pacific but does not clarify whether New Zealand or Australia was colonised first. We evaluate the conservation status of Carex archeri using IUCN criteria as Endangered at the global level. At the state level, we propose Critically Endangered status in New South Wales, Endangered in Victoria and Data Deficient in Tasmania.

Keywords: Australia, biogeography, conservation, endangered plants, molecular systematics, plant DNA barcoding, Southern Hemisphere.

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