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New Zealand Garden Journal (Journal of the RNZIH): June 2008, Vol. 11, No. 1, P. 14-19

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New Zealand Garden Journal (Journal of the RNZIH): June 2008, Vol. 11, No. 1, P. 14-19 Dragons in the mist An interview with Steve Wagstaff, evolutionary biologist at Landcare Research David Glenny1 Introduction Steve: The aims Dr Steve Wagstaff came to New of the project Zealand in 1994 from the USA as the were to defi ne the fi rst botanist in New Zealand to have underlying reasons both classical taxonomic training and for the differences expertise in the then relatively new in species richness technique of DNA sequencing. Steve between New has used DNA sequencing to solve Zealand, Australia, many of the long-standing problems and New Caledonia in the taxonomy of the New Zealand (see Box 1, p. 18). fl owering plant and conifer fl ora. He Q: Which countries has now published work on Hebe and have the most several groups of daisies including species? Brachyglottis, Celmisia, and Olearia. His results often tell stories about the Steve: New Zealand biogeography of New Zealand plants: has by far the where they came from, how long most species of they have been in New Zealand, how Dracophyllumm (35 often and when they dispersed from spp.), followed by New Zealand to neighbouring islands Fig. 1 The world distribution of Dracophyllum and its near New Caledonia (9 or continents. Steve’s work, along relatives, Richea and Sphenotoma. spp.), and Tasmania with that of others in the same fi eld, resemblance of the leaves to those of to a lesser degree (2 spp.). We has changed our understanding of the dragon-tree (Dracaena draco), a compared islands that are species the origins of the New Zealand fl ora. monocot tree of central America that rich with the Australian continent (4 As the interview below illustrates, it is like our cabbage trees (Cordyline spp.). We wanted to determine the seems the majority of our fl owering species). phylogeny, to fi nd the direction of plants evolved from ancestors that evolution. arrived in New Zealand about the late Steve’s fi eld work was supported by Q: What do you mean by direction of Pliocene (less than 5 million years the National Geographic Committee evolution? ago) to early Pleistocene (about 1.6 for Research and Exploration to study mya), often from Australia. The phrase Dracophyllumm throughout its entire Steve: The direction of dispersal ‘Goodbye Gondwana’ (McGlone, range. This involved fi eld work in New – where the genus Dracophyllum 2005) sums up this rejection of the Zealand, Australia including Tasmania, originated and where it dispersed to. view of New Zealand as being an ‘ark’ Lord Howe Island, and New Caledonia Also, we wanted to fi nd out why there carrying the remnants of an ancient to collect specimens of most of the are so many species in New Zealand fl ora. This new view is mainly due Dracophyllumm species and many relative to Australia. Dracophyllum to the results of DNA sequencing species of related genera (Fig. 1). is paraphyletic3 and could include studies. the genus Richea, and if you do Interview this, then the number of species of A recent project, now complete and Dracophyllumm is not so imbalanced soon to be published, was a study Q: You have just completed this in Australia and New Zealand. So of the genus Dracophyllum, a tree project on Dracophyllum. What was the imbalance might be an artefact and shrub genus best known to New the topic of this and why did National of the taxonomy. We wanted to fi nd Zealanders as turpentine scrub, Geographic fund you to do the fi eld out how old the lineages are in each pineapple scrub, or Dr Seuss trees. work? country. New Zealand species might The name Dracophyllumm means have had longer to speciate, or the dragon-leaves and comes from the Australian lineage might be older 1 Landcare Research, PO Box 40, Lincoln 7640; [email protected]. 2 See the next article by Dawson and Winkworth (pp. 18–23). 3 A paraphyletic group is one that is incomplete, i.e., it contains only some of the species that are descendants of the root ancestor species. See the previous article by Glenny and Dawson (pp. 10–12). New Zealand Garden Journal, 2008, Vol. 11(1) 14 but extinction there might have been make fi eld work in New Caledonia National Park. The second trip was greater. Rates of speciation and possible. Murray Dawson assisted a conference fi eld trip led by Greg extinction were issues to address. To with fi eld work in New Zealand, and Jordan, a paleobotanist in Tasmania. get at these issues we had to study in the laboratory did all the DNA He’s studied fossils of Richeaa and the larger group that Dracophyllum extraction and sequencing work. took us to three fossil sites and also belongs to outside New Zealand. showed us sites with living Richea It was critical to include all species (Fig. 5) and Dracophyllum. from the wider regional perspective. That’s partly why we were funded by National Geographic – they saw the importance of doing fi eld work outside of New Zealand. Q: How much did you know about the group when you started and what put the idea in your head to do this project? Steve: We already knew quite a bit about the genus. One major reason we got the National Geographic fund is that we had a strong team in all the countries we worked in. International collaboration produces the best Fig. 3 Dracophyllum traversii, a New science, and besides, it’s more fun Zealand species in fl ower (Photo: ©Paul Fig. 5 Richea pandanifolia on Mt Field, Tasmania. that way. Ashford, www.NZplantpics.com). Q: You did some interesting fi eld work. And fi nally I organised two trips to Where was this? Who did you do the eastern Australia. The fi r st started fi eld work with? at Sydney where we collected a Dracophyllumm species on coastal Steve: I organised two trips to cliffs, then went up to the New South Western Australia with Kristina Wales – Queensland border, and Lemson of Perth to collect then south to Melbourne. A lot of road Sphenotomaa throughout its range. travelling. It only occurs in the forests of South West Australia south of Perth, like Q: Who did you do that trip with? in the Stirling Range National Park Steve: I hired a research fellow at north-east of Albany. Sphenotoma Sydney Botanic Gardens, Andrew is a genus of 7 or 8 species, and Perkins, who had just fi nished his Kristina showed me what she believes PhD and was doing various pieces of to be an undescribed species on the contract work—he’d just published a Fig. 2 Dracophyllum elegantissimum in the summit of the Stirling Range (Fig. 4). book on orchids. Brunner Range, New Zealand. Fanie Venter discovered this new tree species in Nelson Then Fanie Venter and I travelled to province while working on his PhD (Venter, northern Queensland, and to Lord 2004a). Howe Island. Dracophyllum sayeri Fanie Venter was working on a is found only on a few peaks in the revision of the genus for his PhD at Bellenden Ker Range south of Cairns Victoria University, Wellington, and where it’s a forest gap species on the had samples from his work of most peaks of the range. Dracophyllum of the New Zealand species (Fig. 2, fi tzgeraldiii is only on the summit of 3). He had studied specimens from Lord Howe Island (Fig. 6). overseas but had done no fi eld work there. Darren Crayn in Canberra had completed a DNA sequencing survey of the Epacridoideae and contributed sequences from this Fig. 4 A beautiful undescribed Sphenotoma species on the summit ridge of the Stirling earlier study. Kristina Lemson of Perth Range, Western Australia. was preparing a fl ora treatment of a closely related genus, Sphenotoma. There were two trips to Tasmania, Dorothy Steane I had known before I the fi rst trip with Dorothy Steane in came to New Zealand, and she is an autumn when the Dracophyllumm and expert on the Tasmanian fl ora. Jérôme Richea species were in fl ower or fruit, to a number of sites like Mt Field Fig. 6 Steve Wagstaff on Lord Howe Island. Munzinger is writing treatments for The summit of the island, the sole habitat of the New Caledonian fl ora; he helped National Park and Cradle Mountain Dracophyllum fi tzgeraldii, is in the distance. New Zealand Garden Journal, 2008, Vol. 11(1) 15 Q: How did you get onto those training in recognition of plant families, so there was no point continuing to peaks? but the New Caledonian fl ora was sequence very similar New Zealand so exotic I was right out of my depth species. Steve: Well, as it happened, only trying to identify what families the a week before we went, Cyclone We included all Australian species, all plants were in. After the New Zealand Larry went through Queensland and New Caledonian species, and 60% of fl ora with mostly small white fl owers the national parks and many roads the New Zealand species. it was amazing to see these huge, were closed. When we got there, we red, bird-pollinated fl owers. Fanie Q: Did the results give you the were told there was a cable car that and I climbed Mt Humboldt, the information you needed to solve the went to the TV transmitter tower on highest point on the main island. We questions you’d asked? Mt Bellenden Ker. We contacted the traversed through Araucaria forests, studio executives, and said we were Steve: The results were not very eerie in fog that was coming and visiting scientists.
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