Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A phylogenetic study of Echidnopsis Hook. f. (Apocynaceae-Asclepiadoideae) - taxonomic implications and the colonization of the Socotran archipelago

  • Published:
Plant Systematics and Evolution Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We investigated the phylogeny, taxonomy and biogeography of the Eritreo-Arabian genus Echidnopsis Hook. f. (Apocynaceae-Asclepiadoideae). Phylogenetic reconstructions based on nrITS sequence data were obtained using maximum likelihood and parsimony analyses. The results reveal two weakly supported clades, each with a mix of African and Arabian taxa, including the genus Rhytidocaulon, and with four Socotran species forming a subclade of their own. Rather than a vicariance origin of these island elements, our data suggest a single dispersal event from eastern Africa. Echidnopsis thus parallels biogeographic patterns found for other Socotran endemic plants. Our revised taxonomy recognizes 28 species and 4 subspecies in the genus. Two new combinations, E. planiflora subsp. chrysantha and E. sharpei subsp. bavazzani are proposed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Albers F., Meve U. (2001) A karyological survey of Asclepiadoideae, Periplocoideae and Secamonoideae, and evolutionary considerations. In: Endress M., Stevens W. D. (eds.) Apocynaceae s.l. Proceedings of the International Botanical Congress (IBC, St. Louis 1999). Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 88: 624–656.

  • F. Albers U. Meve (2002) Illustrated handbook of succulent plants (Asclepiadaceae) Springer Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  • F. Albers W. Delfs G. Kusch U. Meve (1989) ArticleTitleLebensformen der Ceropegieae und Stapelieae (Asclepiadaceae) in ariden Zonen Afrikas Beitr. Biol. Pflanzen 64 59–74

    Google Scholar 

  • L. Allorge-Boiteau (1996) Madagascar centre de speciation et d'origine du genre Kalanchoe (Crassulaceae) W. R. Lourenço (Eds) Biogéographie de Madagascar ORSTOM Paris 137–145

    Google Scholar 

  • I Alvarez J. F. Wendel (2003) ArticleTitleRibosomal ITS sequences and plant phylogenetic inference Molec. Phylogenet. Evol. 29 417–434 Occurrence Handle14615184 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00208-2 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DC%2BD3sXovVWntbk%3D

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • B. G. Baldwin M. J. Sanderson J. M. Porter M. F. Wojciechowski C. S. Campbell M. J. Donoghue (1995) ArticleTitleThe ITS region of nuclear ribosomal DNA: a valuable source of evidence on angiosperm phylogeny Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 82 247–277 Occurrence Handle10.2307/2399880

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • F. R. Blattner (1999) ArticleTitleDirect amplification of the entire ITS region from poorly preserved plant material using recombinant PCR BioTechniques 29 1180–1186

    Google Scholar 

  • U. R. Böhle H. H. Hilger W. F. Martin (1996) ArticleTitleIsland colonization and evolution of the insular woody habit in Echium L. (Boraginaceae) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93 11740–11745 Occurrence Handle8876207 Occurrence Handle10.1073/pnas.93.21.11740

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • P. V. Bruyns (1988) ArticleTitleA revision of the genus Echidnopsis Hook. f. (Asclepiadaceae) Bradleya 6 1–48

    Google Scholar 

  • P. V. Bruyns (2004) ArticleTitleNew species in Echidnospsis and Secamone and new records of Ceropegia (Apocynaceae) from Socotra Edinburgh J. Bot. 61 IssueID1 7–19 Occurrence Handle10.1017/S0960428604000022

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • S. Collenette (2000) Wildflowers of Saudi Arabia National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development (NCWCD) Riyadh

    Google Scholar 

  • D. Fleitmann A. Matter S. J. Burns A. Al-Subbary M. A. Al-Aowah (2004) ArticleTitleGeology and Quaternary climate history of Socotra Fauna of Arabia 20 27–43

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Francisco-Ortega A. Santos-Guerra A. Hines R. K. Jansen (1997) ArticleTitleMolecular evidence for a Mediterranean origin of Argyranthemum (Asteraceae) Amer. J. Bot. 84 1595–1613 Occurrence Handle10.2307/2446622 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK1cXktlSh

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • P. Grant (1998) Evolution on Islands Oxford University Press Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • B. S. Gaut (1998) Molecular clocks and nucleotide substitution rates in higher plants M. K. Hecht R. J. Macintyre M. T. Clegg (Eds) Evolutionary Biology 30 Plenum Press New York 93–120

    Google Scholar 

  • L. A. Johnson D. E. Soltis (1994) ArticleTitleMatK DNA sequences and phylogenetic reconstruction in Saxifragaceae s. str. Syst. Bot. 19 143–156 Occurrence Handle10.2307/2419718

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • L. A. Johnson D. E. Soltis (1995) ArticleTitlePhylogenetic inference in Saxifragaceae sensu stricto and Gilia (Polemoniaceae) using matK sequences Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 82 149–175 Occurrence Handle10.2307/2399875

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kopp H. (1999) Abiotische Geofaktoren. In: Wranik W. (ed.) Sokotra – Mensch und Natur. Jemen-Studien monograph series, vol. 14. Reichert, Wiesbaden, pp. 3–22.

  • A. S. Laughton R. B. Whitmarsh M. T. Jones (1970) ArticleTitleThe evolution of the Gulf of Aden Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, A 267 227–266

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Lavin M. Thulin J. N. Labat R. T. Pennington (2000) ArticleTitleAfrica, the odd man out: molecular biogeography of dalbergioid legumes (Fabaceae) suggests otherwise Syst. Bot. 25 449–467 Occurrence Handle10.2307/2666689

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • J. J. Lavranos (2006) Pseudolithos M. Thulin (Eds) Flora of Somalia, Vol. 3 Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Kew 190

    Google Scholar 

  • R. H. MacArthur E. O. Wilson (1967) The theory of island biogeography Princeton University Press Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • T. H. M. Mes (1995) Phylogenetic and systematic implications of chloroplast and nuclear spacer sequence in the Macaronesian Sempervivoideae and related Sedoideae H. `tHart U. Eggli (Eds) Origin and evolution of the Macaronesian Sempervivoideae (Crassulaceae) Backhuys Leiden 31–44

    Google Scholar 

  • U. Meve (1997) The genus Duvalia (Stapelieae) Springer Wien

    Google Scholar 

  • U. Meve S. Liede (2002) ArticleTitleA molecular phylogeny and generic rearrangement of the stapelioid Ceropegieae (Apocynaceae-Asclepiadoideae) Pl. Syst. Evol. 234 171–209 Occurrence Handle10.1007/s00606-002-0220-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • U. Meve S. Liede (2004) ArticleTitleSubtribal division of Ceropegieae (Apocynaceae-Asclepiadoideae) Taxon 53 61–72 Occurrence Handle10.2307/4135489

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • B. A. Mies (1998) ArticleTitleBiogeographie der Insel Sokotra (Jemen) Geogr. Rundschau 50 722–729

    Google Scholar 

  • B. A. Mies (2001) Flora und Vegetationsökologie der Insel Soqotra Westarp Wissenschaften Hohenwarsleben

    Google Scholar 

  • A. G. Miller T. A. Cope (1996) Flora of the Arabian Peninsula and Socotra. Vol. 1 Edinburgh University Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • A. G. Miller M. Morris (1988) Plants of Dhofar. Office Advisor Conservation Environment Diwan Royal Court Oman

    Google Scholar 

  • A. G. Miller M. Morris (2004) Ethnoflora of the Soqotra Archipelago RBG Edinburgh Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • M. E Mort D. E. Soltis P. S. Soltis J. Francisco Ortega A. Santos Guerra (2002) ArticleTitlePhylogenetics and evolution of the Macaronesian clade of Crassulaceae inferred from nuclear and chloroplast sequence data Syst. Bot. 27 271–288

    Google Scholar 

  • B. Müller F. Albers (2002) Echidnopsis F. Albers U. Meve (Eds) Illustrated handbook of succulent plants (Asclepiadaceae) Springer Heidelberg 129–136

    Google Scholar 

  • R. G. Olmstead P. A. Reeves A. C. Yen (1998) Patterns of sequence evolution and implications for parsimony analysis of chloroplast DNA D. E. Soltis P. S. Soltis J. J. Doyle (Eds) Molecular systematics of plants EditionNumber2 Kluwer Boston, Dordrecht, London 164–187

    Google Scholar 

  • B. Oxelman M. Liden D. Berglund (1997) ArticleTitleChloroplast rps16 intron phylogeny of the tribe Sileneae (Caryophyllaceae) Pl. Syst. Evol. 206 393–410 Occurrence Handle10.1007/BF00987959

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D. C. H. Plowes (1993) ArticleTitleA new account of Echidnopsis Hook.f. (Asclepiadaceae-Stapelieae) Haseltonia 1 65–85

    Google Scholar 

  • D. Posada K. A. Crandall (1998) ArticleTitleModeltest: testing the model of DNA substitution Bioinformatics 14 817–818 Occurrence Handle9918953 Occurrence Handle10.1093/bioinformatics/14.9.817 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK1MXktlCltw%3D%3D

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • S. M. Richardson W. F. Bott B. A. Smith W. D. Hollar P. M. Bermingham (1995) ArticleTitleA new hydrocarbon ``Play'' area offshore Socotra Island, Republic of Yemen J. Petrol. Geol. 77 225–244

    Google Scholar 

  • T. Sang D. J. Crawford D. J. Stuessy (1997) ArticleTitleChloroplast DNA phylogeny, reticulate evolution, and biogeography of Paeonia (Paeoniaceae) Amer. J. Bot. 84 1120–1136 Occurrence Handle10.2307/2446155 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK2sXlvFejuro%3D

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • D. Schluter (2000) The ecology of adaptive radiation Oxford University Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • M. P. Simmons H. Ochoterena (2000) ArticleTitleGaps as characters in sequence-based phylogenetic analyses Syst. Biol. 49 369–381 Occurrence Handle12118412 Occurrence Handle10.1080/10635159950173889 Occurrence Handle1:STN:280:DC%2BD38zntlKjtg%3D%3D

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • D. L. Swofford (1998) PAUP* 4.0 - Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (*and Other Methods) Sinauer Assoc. Sunderland, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • A. Takhtajan (1986) Floristic regions of the world University of California, Berkeley Los Angeles

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Thiv M. Thulin N. Kilian H. P. Linder (2006) ArticleTitleEritreo-Arabian affinities of the Socotran flora as revealed from the molecular phylogeny of Aerva (Amaranthaceae) Syst. Bot. 31 IssueID3 560–570 Occurrence Handle10.1600/036364406778388683

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • J. D. Thompson T. J. Gibson F. Plewniak F. Jeanmougin D. G. Higgins (1997) ArticleTitleThe ClustalX windows interface: flexible strategies for multiple sequence alignment aided by quality analysis tools Nucleic Acids Research 25 4876–4882 Occurrence Handle9396791 Occurrence Handle10.1093/nar/25.24.4876 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK1cXntFyntQ%3D%3D

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • F. White (1983) The vegetation of Africa: a descriptive memoir to accompany the UNESCO/AETFAT/UNISO vegetation map of Africa Unesco Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • T. J. White T Bruns S. Lee J. W. Taylor (1990) Amplification and direct sequencing of fungal ribosomal RNA genes for phylogenetics M. A. Innis D. H. Gelfand J. J. Sninsky T. J. White (Eds) PCR protocols: a guide to methods and applications Academic Press New York 315–322

    Google Scholar 

  • J. R. I. Wood (1997) A handbook of the Yemen flora Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

    Google Scholar 

  • A. Zharkikh (1994) ArticleTitleEstimation of evolutionary distances between nucleotide sequences J. Molec. Evol. 39 315–329 Occurrence Handle7932793 Occurrence Handle10.1007/BF00160155 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK2cXmt1eitL4%3D

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. M. Thiv

    Present address: Botany Dept., Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Rosenstein 1, 70191, Stuttgart, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Systematic Botany, University of Zurich, Zollikerstr. 107, 8008, Zurich, Switzerland

    M. Thiv

  2. Lehrstuhl für Pflanzensystematik, Universität Bayreuth, 95440, Bayreuth, Germany

    U. Meve

Authors
  1. M. Thiv
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. U. Meve
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Thiv.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Thiv, M., Meve, U. A phylogenetic study of Echidnopsis Hook. f. (Apocynaceae-Asclepiadoideae) - taxonomic implications and the colonization of the Socotran archipelago. Plant Syst. Evol. 265, 71–86 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-007-0516-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-007-0516-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation