Adil GÜNER, Vehbi ESER - optima

GEOPHYTES AND THE MEDITERRANEAN-SOUTH AFRICAN
BIOGEOGRAPHICAL CONNECTION: A PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON
ASPARAGACEAE AND COLCHICACEAE
Félix FOREST 1 , Sarah JOSE 1 , Shrirang R. YADAV 2 , Peter GOLDBLATT 3 , John C.
MANNING 4
1 Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3DS, United Kingdom.
f.forest@kew.org; s.jose@kew.org
2 Department of Botany, Shivaji University, Kolhapur-416 004(MS), India. sryadavdu@rediffmail.com
3 B.A. Krukoff Curator of African Botany, Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299,
U.S.A. peter.goldblatt@mobot.org.
4 Compton Herbarium, Kirstenbosch Research Centre, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Claremont 7735,
South Africa. j.manning@sanbi.org.za
The winter-rainfall zone of southern Africa and the Mediterranean Basin are two of the five
regions of the world with Mediterranean-type climates. Both regions present high plant species
diversity combined with a high level of endemism, which qualifies them as two of the Earth’s 34
biodiversity hotspots. Geophytes represent a large part of this diversity in both regions, much
more than many other vegetation types of the world, but with little overlap in genus diversity (i.e.
genera found in one region are rarely found in the other, with a few exceptions). We present an
overview of the genera of geophytes found in both regions and we discuss the biogeographical
patterns observed in these groups in light of the available phylogenetic information. We focus
particularly on subfamily Scilloideae (former family Hyacinthaceae) of family Asparagaceae,
which includes genera Ornithogalum, Albuca, Drimia and Dipcadi, and family Colchicaceae,
which includes genus Colchicum (=Androcymbium). These two families also have representatives
outside the Mediterranean ecosystems (e.g. tropical Africa, Madagascar, and India). New
molecular phylogenetic evidence for these two groups, combined to state-of-the-art ancestral area
reconstruction methods and molecular dating, will allow us to examine the biogeographical
patterns of these groups.
Keywords: Biogeography, Cape, Scilloideae, Colchicaceae, phylogenetics.
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Oral Lectures