@article {20409, title = {ITS and trnH-psbA as efficient DNA barcodes to identify threatened commercial woody angiosperms from southern Brazilian Atlantic Rainforests}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {10}, year = {2015}, month = {12/2015}, pages = {1-18}, chapter = {1}, abstract = {

The Araucaria Forests in southern Brazil are part of the Atlantic Rainforest, a key hotspot for global biodiversity. This habitat has experienced extensive losses of vegetation cover due to commercial logging and the intense use of wood resources for construction and furniture manufacturing. The absence of precise taxonomic tools for identifying Araucaria Forest tree species motivated us to test the ability of DNA barcoding to distinguish species exploited for wood resources and its suitability for use as an alternative testing technique for the inspection of illegal timber shipments. We tested three cpDNA regions (matK, trnH-psbA, and rbcL) and nrITS according to criteria determined by The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL). The efficiency of each marker and selected marker combinations were evaluated for 30 commercially valuable woody species in multiple populations, with a special focus on Lauraceae species. Inter- and intraspecific distances, species discrimination rates, and ability to recover species-specific clusters were evaluated. Among the regions and different combinations, ITS was the most efficient for identifying species based on the \‘best close match\’ test; similarly, the trnH-psbA + ITS combination also demonstrated satisfactory results. When combining trnH-psbA + ITS, Maximum Likelihood analysis demonstrated a more resolved topology for internal branches, with 91\% of species-specific clusters. DNA barcoding was found to be a practical and rapid method for identifying major threatened woody angiosperms from Araucaria Forests such as Lauraceae species, presenting a high confidence for recognizing members of Ocotea. These molecular tools can assist in screening those botanical families that are most targeted by the timber industry in southern Brazil and detecting certain species protected by Brazilian legislation and could be a useful tool for monitoring wood exploitation.

}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0143049}, author = {Bolson, M{\^o}nica and Smidt, Eric de C. and Marcelo L Brotto and Silva-Pereira, Viviane} } @article {20408, title = {Application of DNA barcodes in Asian tropical trees {\textendash} a case study from Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve, Southwest China}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {10}, year = {2015}, month = {06/2015}, pages = {1-17}, chapter = {1}, abstract = {

Background
Within a regional floristic context, DNA barcoding is more useful to manage plant diversity inventories on a large scale and develop valuable conservation strategies. However, there are no DNA barcode studies from tropical areas of China, which represents one of the biodiversity hotspots around the world.


Methodology and Principal Findings
A DNA barcoding database of an Asian tropical trees with high diversity was established at Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve, Yunnan, southwest China using rbcL and matK as standard barcodes, as well as trnH\–psbA and ITS as supplementary barcodes. The performance of tree species identification success was assessed using 2,052 accessions from four plots belonging to two vegetation types in the region by three methods: Neighbor-Joining, Maximum-Likelihood and BLAST. We corrected morphological field identification errors (9.6\%) for the three plots using rbcL and matK based on Neighbor-Joining tree. The best barcode region for PCR and sequencing was rbcL (97.6\%, 90.8\%), followed by trnH\–psbA (93.6\%, 85.6\%), while matK and ITS obtained relative low PCR and sequencing success rates. However, ITS performed best for both species (44.6\–58.1\%) and genus (72.8\–76.2\%) identification. With trnH\–psbA slightly less effective for species identification. The two standard barcode rbcL and matK gave poor results for species identification (24.7\–28.5\% and 31.6\–35.3\%). Compared with other studies from comparable tropical forests (e.g. Cameroon, the Amazon and India), the overall performance of the four barcodes for species identification was lower for the Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve, possibly because of species/genus ratios and species composition between these tropical areas.


Conclusions/Significance
Although the core barcodes rbcL and matK were not suitable for species identification of tropical trees from Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve, they could still help with identification at the family and genus level. Considering the relative sequence recovery and the species identification performance, we recommend the use of trnH\–psbA and ITS in combination as the preferred barcodes for tropical tree species identification in China.

}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0129295}, author = {Huang, Xiao-cui and Ci, Xiu-Qin and Conran, J. G. and Li, Jie} } @article {20355, title = {Species catalogue of Lauraceae in China: problems and perspectives}, journal = {Biodiversity Science}, volume = {23}, year = {2015}, pages = {232-236}, chapter = {232}, doi = {10.17520/biods.2015027}, author = {Yang, Yong and Liu, Bing} } @article {20339, title = {Ocotea dilcherii, a new name for Ocotea obtusifolia (Berry) LaMotte (Lauraceae)}, journal = {Phytotaxa}, volume = {239}, year = {2015}, month = {12/2015}, pages = {199-200}, chapter = {199}, abstract = {

The fossil species Oreodaphne obtusifolia Berry (1916: 301) was described, based on the fossil leaf remains of the most abundant laurel from the Early Eocene Wilcox Group sediments of Holly Springs: Marshall Co, Grenada Co., Miss.: Mississippi embayment (Southeastern North America). Nowadays, most systematists consider the extant Oreodaphne to be a member of Ocotea (Mez, 1889: 219; Rohwer, 1986; van der Werff, 2002; Chanderbali et al., 2001). LaMotte (1952) transferred Berry\’s (1916: 301) combination to Ocotea, and this transfer was followed by Dilcher (1963), who reinforced attribution of Wilcox leaf megafossils to Ocotea by cuticular analysis of epidermis and stomata (Dilcher \& Lott, 2005). However, according to Art. 53.1 of the ICN (McNeill et al. 2012) the name Ocotea obtusifolia (Berry) LaMotte (1952) is illegitimate because of the existence of the earlier overlooked homonym, Ocotea obtusifolia Kunth (1817: 165\–166), an extant lauraceous species from Colombia (Mus\éum National d\’Histoire Naturelle, holotype: http://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.specimen.P00128771). The homonymy between these fossil and extant American species of Ocotea was revealed during the description of the new fossil Early Oligocene species Ocotea rossica Vikulin from the south of the Middle-Russian upland (Vikulin, 2015: 326). Since Ocotea obtusifolia (Berry) LaMotte has been systematically recognized as a valid species in current use and it does not have any synonym, a nomen novum, O. dilcherii, is formally proposed here as a replaced name. Because a type specimen was not indicated among the validating illustrations of Berry (1916: pl. 80, fig. 1; pl. 83, fig. 2\–5, and pl. 84, fig. 1 and 2), a lectotype must be designated here, from the specimens illustrated in the protologue (Berry, 1916: 301\–302) amongst those perfect specimens with blunt leaf apex, which are very abundant in the clays at Puryear, Tenn. (Proposed lectotype: paleobotany collection $\#$ USNM 35867, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (USA), illustrated in Berry, 1916: 301, pl. 83, fig. 5.

}, author = {Vikulin, Sergei V} } @article {20332, title = {Characterization of Hawaiian Cryptocarya (Lauraceae): recognition of a critically endangered species and relation to non-Hawaiian congeners}, journal = {Pacific Science}, volume = {69}, year = {2015}, pages = {103-115}, chapter = {103}, abstract = {

Abstract: Proper taxonomic classification of species is essential to the conservation of rare species to ensure that they garner needed protection. This study was undertaken to determine relationships among the Hawaiian representatives of Cryptocarya. This genus is represented in Hawai\‘i on the islands of Kaua\‘i and O\‘ahu, where it is currently classified as a single species (C. mannii) and not considered endangered. It had previously been recognized as two species, C. mannii on Kaua\‘i where it is relatively abundant and C. oahuensis on O\‘ahu. O\‘ahu plants have been in decline since their discovery over 100 yr ago and now only one naturally occurring plant is known. RAPD analysis demonstrates that populations on Kaua\‘i are genetically distinct from those on O\‘ahu. Sequence analysis of nuclear ( ITS) and plastid (trnK intron) gene regions shows distinctions among plants from different islands ( ITS: four or five base substitutions plus one repeat length difference; trnK intron: one base substitution plus one repeat length difference). Differentiation identified here is comparable with that of some congeneric species elsewhere and is consistent with recognition of C. oahuensis and C. mannii as separate species. Both species are members of the Asian-Australian clade in a broader phylogenetic analysis. Morphological traits that distinguish each species are examined, and a key to the species is provided. Conservation measures to protect the critically endangered C. oahuensis are discussed.

}, doi = {10.2984/69.1.8}, author = {Morden, Clifford W and Ching Harbin, Susan and Rohwer, Jens G. and Portner, Talia and Yorkston, Mitsuko} } @article {20321, title = {The Lauraceous collections of Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius in the Flora Brasiliensis}, journal = {Harvard Papers in Botany}, volume = {20}, year = {2015}, month = {12/2015}, pages = {167-197}, chapter = {167}, abstract = {

Abstract. This study refers to specimens of Lauraceae collected in Brazil by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius between 1817 and 1820. He collected 57 currently accepted species of Lauraceae, which belong to nine genera: Aniba, Cassytha, Cinnamomum, Cryptocarya, Dicypellium, Licaria, Nectandra, Ocotea, and Persea, for which Martius is known to have made about 99 different collections. The vast majority of them are nomenclatural types and, taking into account the synonyms involved, encompassing 26 holotypes, 23 lectotypes, and 30 syntypes. Besides Martius himself, early descriptions and citations of these materials were made by Nees von Esenbeck, Meissner, and Mez, the first monographers of the family. Martius\’s collections were the basis for the Flora Brasiliensis, where the taxonomic treatment of Lauraceae was made by the Swiss botanist Carl Daniel Friedrich Meissner in 1866, being of particular interest for indicating all the collections examined and available at that time. Here, we provide an annotated and updated list of 60 entries with information on the status of the names and their types, currently accepted names, collections found in different herbaria, accompanied by an Index to Scientific names and an Index to Collections. Although there are no cases of specimens of Lauraceae collected by Martius from his \“Martii Herbarium Florae Brasiliensis,\” they are also listed here since they have been attributed to him in literature. Lectotypes for two names, Cryptocarya speciosa, and Nectandra nitidula var. maior, are designated, and a new synonymy is proposed.

}, doi = {10.3100/hpib.v20iss2.2015.n7}, author = {Pedro L.R. de Moraes and Falcade, Anderson} } @article {20319, title = {Nova esp{\'e}cie bissexuada de Ocotea Aubl. (Lauraceae) de Minas Gerais e Bahia, Brasil}, journal = {Heringeriana}, volume = {9}, year = {2015}, pages = {3-12}, chapter = {3}, abstract = {

RESUMO - Este trabalho apresenta uma nova esp\écie bissexuada de Lauraceae, Ocotea georgeshepherdii J.B. Baitello, com ocorr\ências na Serra da Canastra, Serra preta, Serra do Espinha\ço e Serra da Babil\ônia dos Cerrados e Campos Rupestres do Estado de Minas Gerais e Cerrados do Estado de Bahia.\  A esp\écie \é descrita e ilustrada e s\ão feitos coment\ários sobre sua fenologia, habitat e categoria de amea\ça.

ABSTRACT (New bisexual species of Ocotea Aubl. (Lauracae) from Minas Gerais and Bahia, Brazil) - This paper presents a new bisexual Lauraceae, Ocotea georgeshepherdii J.B. Baitello, with occurrences in the Serra da Canastra,Serra preta, Serra do Espinha\ço and Serra da Babil\ônia of the Cerrados and Campos Rupestres of Minas Gerais and Cerrado of Bahia.\  The species is described and illustraded and comments are made about its phenology, habitat and threat category.

}, author = {Baitello, Jo{\~a}o B} } @article {20312, title = {Litsea udayanii (Lauraceae): A new species from the southern Western Ghats, India}, journal = {Phytotaxa}, volume = {222}, year = {2015}, pages = {44-50}, chapter = {44}, abstract = {

Litsea udayanii, a new species of Lauraceae from the Anamalai phytogeographical zone of southern Western Ghats is described and illustrated here. The new species resembles L. cubeba in its clustered inflorescence and L. beddomei in fruits.\  Litsea udayanii differs from L. cubeba by its coriaceous leaves, 12 staminodes in the female flowers, ellipsoid fruits, and an enlarged and cup-shaped perianth tube; it differs from L. beddomei by its elliptic-oblong leaves with cuneate to rounded base and abaxially prominent tertiary veins, and by its clustered inflorescence. In contrast, L. cubeba is characterized by chartaceous leaves, 8\–9 staminodes in the female flowers, subglobose fruits, and a small and flattened perianth tube and L. beddomei is distinguished by linear-oblong leaves with acute to attenuate base and abaxially inconspicuous tertiary veins, and by inflorescences arranged on 1\–5 cm long brachyblasts.

}, keywords = {Anamalai, Kerala, new species, Western Ghats}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.222.1.4}, author = {Robi, A.J. and George, Satheesh and Thushar, K.V.} } @article {20285, title = {Typification of seven species of Litsea (Lauraceae) endemic to India}, journal = {Phytotaxa}, volume = {201}, year = {2015}, month = {03/2015}, pages = {278-286}, chapter = {278}, issn = {1179-3155}, author = {Singh, Rajeev K.} }