Abstract Detail

Pteridological Section/AFS

Sessa, Emily B. [1], Givnish, Thomas J. [1], Zimmer, Elizabeth [2].

Relationships of New World Dryopteris (Dryopteridaceae) .

Dryopteris is a large, nearly cosmopolitan genus of ferns consisting of approximately 225 species which occur in tropical, temperate, and boreal regions worldwide. Little study has been made of the genus outside of Asia, North America, and Hawaii, and the present work on the New World taxa is part of an international collaboration to develop a global phylogeny for Dryopteris. We sequenced 10 genes and rapidly evolving spacers from the plastid genome for 50 accessions, representing all 13 North American species and 17 of the roughly 20 Neotropical taxa, as well as placeholder species for other major geographic regions. Preliminary results indicate that the Central American species are allied with the South American taxa rather than with the North American group, and neither the Central/South American nor the North American complex is monophyletic. Both regions share taxa with Eurasia, although the same species are not shared, and there is minimal overlap of taxa between North America and Central/South America. We plan to use this phylogeny to reconstruct the biogeographic history of Dryopteris in the New World and to clarify relationships between species in Eurasia and the Americas.

Broader Impacts:

1 - University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Botany, 430 Lincoln Drive, Birge Hall, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
2 - Smithsonian Institution, Department of Systematic Botany, 4210 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, MD, 20746, USA

Keywords:
fern systematics
Neotropics
hybridization
reticulate evolution.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 2
Location: 556B/Convention Center
Date: Monday, August 2nd, 2010
Time: 11:00 AM
Number: 2012
Abstract ID:345