Plant of the Week Narratives Rarely Offer the Chance to See All the Vowels in Perfect Alphabetical Order So There’S a First!

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Plant of the Week Narratives Rarely Offer the Chance to See All the Vowels in Perfect Alphabetical Order So There’S a First!

So, what is so special about Aeonium? For a start, it’s fun, a seven-letter word that incorporates all five vowels. Our abstemious (but never facetious) Plant of the Week narratives rarely offer the chance to see all the vowels in perfect alphabetical order so there’s a first! Seriously, for biologists, Aeonium species are of particular interest as their distribution amongst the Canary Islands off the north-west coast of Africa, is a classic model of adaptive radiation. This is the process in which organisms diversify rapidly from an ancestral species into new forms that evolve to fill different environmental niches. The process begins with a common, recent ancestry of species and results in the evolution of new species with differences in morphological (outward appearance) and physiological (functional) characteristics. Charles Darwin’s Galapagos Island finches are the most commonly quoted example of adaptive radiation. Aeonium arboreum, a common and popular garden plant, produces rosettes of relatively thin succulent leaves at the top of erect succulent stems. Flowers in late autumn and winter are magnificent, arranged in golden-yellow cones. There are 42 species of Aeonium, 36 Lanzarote: 2 La Palma: 9 are endemic to the Canary Islands, two Teneriffe: 14 species are found on Madeira, one on the Cape La Gomera: 11 Verde Islands, one in spp. Fuerteventura: 1 Morocco (Aeonium arboreum) and two in El Hierro: 5 Gran Canaria: 6 East Africa. Botanists believe that Aeonium Aeonium, number of species recorded from each island of the Canary originated in the Canary Archipelago. Modified from: Jorgensen & Olesen. 2001. Adaptive radiation of island plants: evidence from Aeonium (Crassulaceae) of Islands, and later the Canary Islands. dispersed via long distance dispersal to the other island groups, to Africa (Morocco and east Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania) and to Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, rather than being a relict of an African Aeonium Tertiary flora. Most species are endemic to just one island, and usually confined to particular habitats. Vegetative characteristics of Aeonium, such as growth habit (creeping to upright, branched Azores shrubs), leaf morphology Madeira (variation in shape, pubescence, Morocco presence of glands and of ciliate [hairy] margins) and flower size Canary Islands and number of petals are some of Yemen the traits considered in studies of adaptive radiation of the genus. Cape Verde Ethiopia Somalia Kenya Uganda Tanzania Alison Downing, Brian Atwell, Kevin Downing Department of Biological Sciences Jorgensen T H, Olesen J M. 2001. Adaptive radiation of island plants: evidence from Aeonium (Crassulaceae) of the Canary Islands. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics. Vol. 4(1): 29-42. Mes T H M, van Brederode J, Hart H. (1996). Origin of the Woody Macaronesian Sempervivoideae and the Phylogenetic Position of the East African Species of Aeonium. Botanica Acta, 109(6): 477-491. doi:10.1111/j.1438-8677.1996.tb00601.x Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeonium Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeonium_arboreum .

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