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Newsletter No. 138 March 2009 Price: $5.00 Australian Systematic Botany Newsletter 138 (March 2009) AUSTRALIAN SYSTEMATIC BOTANY SOCIETY INCORPORATED Council President Vice President Marco Duretto Peter Weston Tasmanian Herbarium National Herbarium of New South Wales Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney Private Bag 4 Mrs Macquaries Road Hobart, Tasmania 7001 Sydney, NSW 2000 Tel: (03) 6226 1806 Tel: (02) 9231 8111 Fax: (03) 6226 7865 Fax: (02) 9251 7231 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Secretary Treasurer Kirsten Cowley Michael Bayly Australian National Herbarium School of Botany GPO Box 1600 The University of Melbourne, Vic. 3010 Canberra, ACT 2601 Tel: (03) 8344 7150 Tel: (02) 6246 5024 Fax: (03) 9347 5460 Fax: (02) 6246 5249 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Councillor Councillor Dale Dixon Tanya Scharaschkin Northern Territory Herbarium School of Natural Resource Sciences Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Queensland University of Technology P.O. Box 496 PO Box 2434 Palmerston, NT 0831 Brisbane, Queensland 4001 Tel: (08) 89994512 Tel: (07) 3138 1395 Fax: (08) 89994527 Fax: (07) 3138 1535 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Other Constitutional Bodies Public Officer Hansjörg Eichler Research Committee Kirsten Cowley Barbara Briggs Australian National Herbarium Rod Henderson (Contact details above) Betsy Jackes Kristina Lemson Chris Quinn Affiliate Society Chair: Peter Weston, Vice President (ex officio) Papua New Guinea Botanical Society Grant applications close: 14 September (TBA) ASBS Website www.anbg.gov.au/asbs Webmaster: Murray Fagg Cover Image: Boronia jensziae (Rutaceae), reproduced Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research with the permission of Peter Neish (the artist) and Australian National Herbarium ABRS. Email: [email protected] Publication dates of previous issue Austral.Syst.Bot.Soc.Nsltr 137 (December 2008 issue) Hardcopy: 9 February 2009; ASBS Website: 21 January 2009 Australian Systematic Botany Newsletter 138 (March 2009) From the President The festive season is over and most of us are South Wales. Jeremy Bruhl has informed me getting back into the swing of things, especially that planning is progressing well. Most of our those, like myself, who have had a long summer conferences are held in capital cities and I hope break. It has not been a good start for the year with many of you take advantage of the conference the devastating fires in Victoria and the floods in being in a regional area. The conference is made Queensland and New South Wales. Our thoughts the more exciting given the region it is being held are with those who have been affected by these in is spectacular, very diverse and rich in local disasters. endemics. A good excuse to do some fieldwork. At this conference I will be stepping down as On a more positive note, Prof. Pauline Ladiges, th stalwart member of ASBS, was, in the Australia president, having completed my 6 term on Day Honours, made an Officer of the Order Council and I have been informed by Kirsten of Australia (AO) in the General Division. On Cowley (CANB: ASBS Secretary) that she will behalf of the Society I would like to congratulate not be nominating for Council this year. Maybe it Pauline for receiving this highly deserved honour. is time for you to consider joining the Council? If More information can be found at http://www. you would like information on the Council do not itsanhonour.gov.au and elsewhere in this issue. hesitate contacting any of its members. The Society has been participating in TaxA Input into the running of the Society by members is (Taxonomy Australia) and the last meeting was always valued. If you have any ideas/constructive held in Sydney at the Australian Museum (27 comments on the general running of the Society, February 2009). ASBS was represented at the conferences, ideas for workshops and the website meeting by Dr Elizabeth Brown (NSW: former please do pass them on. The last newsletter ASBS Treasurer). Discussions on the day included contained membership renewal forms. Remember an intergovernmental agreement on taxonomy. I to fill these in ASAP as chasing lapsed members is am sure we will hear more from TaxA soon. a time-consuming process for our treasurer. ASBS has had a string of successful conferences, All the best for 2009 everyone and I hope to see or the last being in Adelaide. As most know, this hear from you soon. year’s conference is to be held in Armidale, New Marco Duretto Notes from the Editors Technical points website for those who would like it. Given that this Alex George has pointed out a couple of items to may increase the file’s size, it would not replace amend the Newsletter. The current abbreviation the black and white version, rather supplement for the Newsletter is not in line with standards used it. A trial with the current issue shows that there in BPH-2, and hence Alex has recommended that is minimal difference in the size of the final files the abbreviation be changed to Austral. Syst. Bot. due to image compression. To gain maximum Soc. Newslett. accordingly. He has also noted that picture clarity, the image versions are modified some periodicals have a separate ISSN for their independently, however this is a relatively simple on-line copy, largely to accommodate different task, so if there is sufficient interest in having a publication dates and paginations for particular colour version made available on the website, we articles, however we do not think this is needed at are willing to do the extra work in production. present as the two are identical except for image No investigation has been made into the costs of resolution. printing the Newsletter in colour, but perhaps this could be considered in the future. Colour version for the website? Some suggestion has been made that a colour We thank you for your contributions to the version of the Newsletter could be placed on the Newsletter and welcome your feedback. 1 Australian Systematic Botany Newsletter 138 (March 2009) Eichler Research Fund Report listed as endangered, vulnerable or rare according Systematics and Taxonomy to the 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants, of subtribe Dendrobiinae including some Australian taxa (Lavarack et al. (Orchidaceae) in Australia 2000). Jacinta M. Burke Schlechter (1911–1914) divided Dendrobiinae School of Botany, The University of into six genera. Of these, Dendrobium is the Melbourne, Vic., 3010 most significant in the Australian epiphytic flora, [email protected] being the dominant orchid genus in rainforest Introduction and sclerophyll forest and a high interest genus for orchid growers and the commercial Orchidaceae Juss. is one of the largest plant orchid industry (Figure 1). Based on vegetative families. Between 20,000 and 25,000 species are characteristics, Schlechter divided Dendrobium classified into five subfamilies and nineteen tribes into four subgenera (Athecebium, Eu-Dendrobium, (Dressler 1981). Within tribe Dendrobieae Lindl., Rhopalobium and Xerobium), which were subtribe Dendrobiinae Lindl. is one of the most then divided further into 41 sections. All four taxonomically puzzling. Subtribe Dendrobiinae, subgenera of Dendrobium are represented within with approximately 1800 species, has a distribution Australia. Subgenus Athecebium has three sections that extends from India and Sri Lanka in the west represented, subgenus Eu-Dendrobium has four to Tahiti in the east, and from Japan and Korea in sections represented, subgenus Rhopalobium has the north to New Zealand in the south. Subtribe only one species in the one section represented, Dendrobiinae comprises some of the most prized and subgenus Xerobium has four sections species in the Orchidaceae. Many species are represented. Figure 1. Dendrobium speciosum var. curvicaule 2 Australian Systematic Botany Newsletter 138 (March 2009) Although subtribe Dendrobiinae has undergone is that the relatively short sequences (≈ 300 base several reviews (Lindley 1850, Kränzlin 1910, pairs each) may not provide sufficient variable Schlechter 1911–1914, Brieger 1981) there is sites to yield a robust resolution of phylogenetic controversy about its classification and thus need relationships. A broad sampling of Australasian for phylogenetic analysis. taxa was chosen. Sampling included 65% of all Australian taxa and represented 75% of Australian Yukawa (2001) presented a phylogeny based sections. Included in the sampling were all of the on sequencing the internal transcribed spacer Australian taxa of section Dendrocoryne, as well as (ITS) region of nuclear ribosomal DNA and the multiple accessions for the more variable taxa (D. chloroplast matK gene. The results showed that kingianum, D. speciosum and D. tetragonum). Dendrobium was not monophyletic because Cadetia, Diplocaulobium and Flickingeria were The ITS region was amplified using the primers nested in Dendrobium. The phylogeny indicated of White et al. (1990) and Kass and Wink (1997). that Dendrobium consisted of two major clades, These primers gave variable results. Many taxa one to the east of Weber’s Line and the other to were successfully amplified using the White the west of Weber’s Line. Within Dendrobium, et al. (1990) primers; however, in some cases Yukawa (2001) found that many sections were not endophytic fungi were preferentially amplified. monophyletic but he did not support the further The primers of Kass and Wink (1997) amplified a splitting of Dendrobium. He recommended the few taxa but many resulted in little or no product conservation of the well-established Dendrobium or in the amplification of pseudogenes. The sensu lato, which would sink Cadetia, angiosperm-specific primers of Sun et al. (1994) Diplocaulobium and Flickingeria. Clements and were used subsequently for amplification. This Jones (2002) proposed nomenclatural changes resulted in greater success, although more than to the Australasian Dendrobieae, with 23 new one product was still produced for some taxa, genera.