Department of Botany & the U.S. National Herbarium The Plant Press New Series - Vol. 20 - No. 4 October-December 2017 Botany Profile Keep Cool and Carex On By Pedro Jiménez-Mejías he Neotropic harbors one of the munities. are present in southern South America most striking biotas of the World. The genus Carex is one of these and one in New Zealand. Despite being TIt has attracted the attention of graminoids. Carex are sedges belonging to considered aquatic plants, Carex inhabits researchers since the establishment of the family Cyperaceae, unlike true grasses a number of habitats, and the Neotropi- modern biology. Indeed, the understand- which belong to family Poaceae. Under cal members of the genus are found in ing of Neotropical organisms has played its current delimitation, Carex ranks as wet environments as well as dry pastures a major role in the development of some the third largest genus of flowering plants, and forest understories. of the most significant works in evolu- containing close to 2,000 species, with In Central and South America and the tionary biology, such as Humboldt’s basis new species discovered every year. Sedges Caribbean, the genus Carex comprises of modern biogeography, the understand- of the genus Carex are cold-adapted, about 200 species with a large major- ing of the Great American Interchange of which is clearly depicted by its almost ity of them endemic to the Neotropic. fauna between North and South America cosmopolitan distribution but total absence Neotropical Carex are rather phyloge- during the Cenozoic Era, or the build- from tropical deserts and rainforest basins. netically diverse and have entered the ing of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution The genus is known to have originated continent many times from diverse areas itself. In addition, the Neotropic harbors during the early Cenozoic probably in of the world. While the most natural col- amazingly diverse biomes, including one southeastern Asia. It spread and diversified onization route appears to be from North of the most biodiverse communities on through the northern hemisphere entering America via Central American moun- Earth, the Amazon rainforest. Moreover, the southern hemisphere in South Amer- tains, there are a variety of situations. it is extensively known that the formation ica, Africa, and Australasia by diverse For example, recent studies in bipolar of the Andes promoted diversification colonization events. During its radiation Carex point to direct long-distance and speciation, not only by the creation Carex has always remained as a temperate dispersal colonization events between of new environments on its slopes, but element. the higher latitudes of North and South also as a result of the diverse influence America, rather than a stepping-stone the mountain range had on the surround- n the tropics, Carex species only dispersal mode through the intermediate ing territories. occur on mountains. Most Carex ranges. On the other hand, direct coloni- Under such an overwhelming pres- Ispecies in South America are found zation from Western Europe to Rio de la ence, some discrete organisms remain in the Patagonia steppe and the Andean Plata region seems to have happened at mostly unnoticed and poorly understood. grasslands, although a number of taxa least in the species of the section Spiros- Among them there are many Neotropi- also inhabit the Argentinian pampas and tachyae. Africa could be another source cal graminoids, i.e. grass-like plants. the Brazilian-Uruguayan campos. Only area for at least the subtropical species Graminoids are the main components of seven species are known from the high- of the section Indicae, an unusual Carex non-tree dominated ecosystems, such as est Guyanan tepuis. In Central America species with large open-paniculate prairies, savannahs, or wetlands, which and the Caribbean, Carex is limited to the inflorescences. More studied, but not cover a significant portion of South mountains as well. Carex also has one of less striking, is the dispersal through America. Despite the lack of showiness the most striking disjunctions of the world, the Pacific. Two groups of species show seen in other flowering plants, gramin- the bipolar disjunction, in which the same close affinities with species in southern oids are extremely important in terms of species occurs at high latitudes of both Australasia: the rush-like species of the biomass, serving as shelter and aliment hemispheres. Compared to other bipolar section Junciformes, and the hooked- to many creatures, as well as serving as plant genera, Carex has the largest number sedges of the former genus Uncinia. The of species with a total of six species—five resource foundations for human com- Continued on page 16 Travel Pedro Acevedo traveled to Rio de Alabama A&M University. ium of the South China Botanical Garden Janeiro and Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil Laurence Dorr traveled to Shenzhen, (IBSC); to Shenzhen, China (7/24 – 7/31) (8/14 – 8/27; 9/12 – 9/15) to collect plants China (7/15 – 7/26) to attend the XIX to attend the XIX International Botani- for his phylogenetics studies of Sapin- International Botanical Congress and to cal Congress where she co-organized the daceae in the Neotropics. participate in the Nomenclature Section. symposium, “New insights on the assem- Gabriel Arellano traveled to Barro Ashley Egan traveled to Shenzhen, bly and biodiversity of the flora of North Colorado Island, Panama (9/16 – 10/1) to China (7/21 – 7/30) to attend the XIX America,” gave a talk, and presented a conduct fieldwork and train technicians in International Botanical Congress where poster; and to western North Carolina (9/8 a 50-ha dynamics ForestGEO plot. she presented a paper; and throughout – 9/11) to collect plants. David Ballantine traveled to Shen- Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mis- Pedro Jiménez-Mejías traveled to zhen, China (7/21 – 7/30) to attend the sissippi (9/25 – 10/16) to conduct popula- St. Louis, Missouri (9/19 – 9/27) to study XIX International Botanical Congress. tion level sampling of Phaseolus polysta- the collection of Neotropical Carex at the Manuela Dal Forno traveled to Graz, chios (Fabaceae). Missouri Botanical Garden. Austria (9/3 – 11/7) to learn new analyses Sally Eichhorn traveled to Shenzhen, Joe Kirkbride traveled to Copenhagen and techniques in lichen microbiology China (7/19 – 7/29) to attend the annual and Aarhus, Denmark (9/11 – 9/22) to with Martin Grube at the University of International Association for Plant Tax- attend the VII International Rubiaceae and Graz. onomy (IAPT) Council Meeting. Gentianales Conference and to examine Stuart Davies traveled to Rio Grande, Vicki Funk traveled to Shenzhen, the collections of Ecuadorian Rubiaceae at Puerto Rico (7/16 – 7/31) with Gabriel China (7/15 – 7/30) to attend the XIX the Aarhus University Herbarium (AAU) Arellano, David Kenfack, Mauro Lep- International Botanical Congress where and the University of Copenhagen Her- ore, Haley Overstreet, and Lauren Kri- she co-organized a session on Composi- barium (C). zel to participate in the Center for Tropi- tae and a session on “Systematic Agenda W. John Kress traveled to Shenzhen, cal Forest Science - Forest Global Earth 2050,” and participated in the Nomencla- China (7/15 – 7/30) to attend the XIX Observatory (CTFS-ForestGEO) Dimen- ture Section; and to Paris, France (9/14 – International Botanical Congress where he sions Workshop funded by the National 10/11) to work in the herbarium to identify gave a keynote lecture, “Tropical plant- Science Foundation; and to Huntsville, specimens collected from Madagascar. animal interactions: Coevolution in the Alabama (9/6 – 9/8) to visit a potential Karen Golinski and Spencer Goyette Anthropocene,” and he co-organized two new ForestGEO site and give a lecture at traveled to Haida Gwaii, Canada (7/3 – sessions on DNA barcoding. 7/30; 9/11 – 9/27) to collect bryophyte Gary Krupnick traveled to Carta- The Plant Press specimens for the Global Genome Initia- gena, Colombia (7/23 – 7/29) to attend the tive (GGI) and search for rare mosses; and International Congress for Conservation New Series - Vol. 20 - No. 4 to Yellowknife, Canada (8/6 – 8/13) to Biology where he presented a talk, “The Chair of Botany collect bryophytes and participate in two immense value of scientific collections in Laurence J. Dorr BioBlitzes at the invitation of the Govern- conservation research.” ([email protected]) ment of Northwest Territories. Sue Lutz traveled to Booth Harbor, Morgan Gostel traveled to Shenzhen, Maine (7/3 – 7/19) to assist Walter Adey EDITORIAL STAFF China (7/20 – 8/1) to participate in the in a collecting trip. Global Genome Biodiversity Network Marcelo Pace traveled to Shenzhen, Editor Asian Regional Workshop and to attend China (7/22 – 7/29) to attend the XIX Gary Krupnick ([email protected]) the XIX International Botanical Congress International Botanical Congress where where he presented two talks and orga- he presented two papers and a poster; to Copy Editors nized a workshop for the Global Genome São Paulo, Brazil (8/11 – 8/18) to prepare Robin Everly, Bernadette Gibbons, and Initiative for Gardens (GGI-Gardens); to course materials and write papers at the Rose Gulledge Stillwater, Oklahoma (9/6 – 9/8) to give University of São Paulo; to Rio de Janeiro, th The Plant Press is a quarterly publication pro- an invited seminar at Oklahoma State Brazil (8/18 – 8/27) to attend the 68 Bra- vided free of charge. To receive notification of University; to Munich, Germany (9/23 – zilian Congress of Botany where he pre- when new pdf issues are posted to the web, please subscribe to the listserve by sending a message 9/30) to sample the living collection at the sented two papers and taught two graduate to [email protected] containing only the Botanischer Garten Munchen-Nymphen- courses on bark anatomy and macroscopic following in the body of the text: SUBSCRIBE PLANTPRESS-NEWS Firstname Lastname.