I. the origin of species by means of natural selection

DURING this year I have so often been asked how this Code could be obtained that I hasten, with your permission, to announce that the Washington Biological Society has just published a reprint at the price of one dollar. Prof. C. W. Stiles, secretary to the Commission, says: “I would suggest that, if your colleagues wish copies, it would expedite matters to order a number at once”. The address of the Society is at the Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

/pdf/international-code-of-zoological-nomenclature-2fg701d5it.pdf

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature

An updated inventory of the vascular flora alien to Italy, providing details on the occurrence at regional level, is presented. The checklist includes 1597 species, subspecies, and hybrids, distributed in 725 genera and 152 families; 2 taxa are lycophytes, 11 ferns and fern allies, 33 gymnosperms, and 1551 angiosperms. 157 taxa are archaeophytes and 1440 neophytes. The alien taxa currently established in Italy are 791 (570 naturalized and 221 invasive), while 705 taxa are casual aliens, 4 are not assessed, 7 are of unknown regional distribution, 47 have not been confirmed in recent times, 3 are considered extinct or possibly extinct in the country, and 40 are doubtfully occurring in Italy. This checklist allows to establish an up-to-date number (9792) of taxa constituting the whole (native and alien) Italian flora.

/pdf/an-updated-checklist-of-the-vascular-flora-native-to-italy-2tuf9mb3d4.pdf

An updated checklist of the vascular flora native to Italy

Cannabis sativa has been employed for thousands of years, primarily as a source of a stem fiber (both the plant and the fiber termed “hemp”) and a resinous intoxicant (the plant and its drug preparations commonly termed “marijuana”). Studies of relationships among various groups of domesticated forms of the species and wild-growing plants have led to conflicting evolutionary interpretations and different classifications, including splitting C. sativa into several alleged species. This review examines the evolving ways Cannabis has been used from ancient times to the present, and how human selection has altered the morphology, chemistry, distribution and ecology of domesticated forms by comparison with related wild plants. Special attention is given to classification, since this has been extremely contentious, and is a key to understanding, exploiting and controlling the plant. Differences that have been used to recognize cultivated groups within Cannabis are the results of disruptive selection for characteristics selected by humans. Wild-growing plants, insofar as has been determined, are either escapes from domesticated forms or the results of thousands of years of widespread genetic exchange with domesticated plants, making it impossible to determine if unaltered primeval or ancestral populations still exist. The conflicting approaches to classifying and naming plants with such interacting domesticated and wild forms are examined. It is recommended that Cannabis sativa be recognized as a single species, within which there is a narcotic subspecies with both domesticated and ruderal varieties, and similarly a non-narcotic subspecies with both domesticated and ruderal varieties. An alternative approach consistent with the international code of nomenclature for cultivated plants is proposed, recognizing six groups: two composed of essentially non-narcotic fiber and oilseed cultivars as well as an additional group composed of their hybrids; and two composed of narcotic strains as well as an additional group composed of their hybrids.

Evolution and Classification of Cannabis sativa (Marijuana, Hemp) in Relation to Human Utilization

Cultivated potatoes have been classified as species under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) and as cultivar-groups under the International Code of Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants (ICNCP); both classifications are still widely used. This study examines morphological support for the classification of landrace populations of cultivated potatoes, using representatives of all seven species and most subspecies as outlined in the latest taxonomic treatment. These taxa are S. ajanhuiri, S. chaucha, S. curtilobum, S. juzepczukii, S. phureja subsp. phureja, S. stenotomum subsp. stenotomum, S. stenotomum subsp. goniocalyx, S. tuberosum subsp. andigenum, and S. tuberosum subsp. tuberosum. The results show some phenetic support for S. ajanhuiri, S. chaucha, S. curtilobum, S. juzepczukii, and S. tuberosum subsp. tuberosum, but little support for the other taxa. Most morphological support is by using a suite of characters, all of which are shared with other taxa (polythetic support). These results, combined with their likely hybrid origins, multiple origins, evolutionary dynamics of continuing hybridization, and our classification philosophy, leads us to recognize all landrace populations of cultivated potatoes as a single species, S. tuberosum, with the eight cultivar-groups: Ajanhuiri Group, Andigenum Group, Chaucha Group, Chilotanum Group, Curtilobum Group, Juzepczukii Group, Phureja Group, and Stenotomum Group. We defer classification of modern cultivars, traditionally classified in Tuberosum Group, to a later study.

Reclassification of landrace populations of cultivated potatoes (Solanum sect. Petota)

 Premise of the study: The fi rst family-wide molecular phylogeny of the Araceae, a family of about 3800 published species in 120 genera, became available in 1995, followed by a cladistic analysis of morpho-anatomical data in 1997. The most recent and comprehensive family-wide molecular phylogeny was published in 2008 and included species from 102 genera. We reanalyzed the molecular data with a more complete genus sampling and compared the resulting phylogeny with morphological and anatomical data, with a view to contributing to a new formal classifi cation of the Araceae.  Methods: We analyzed 113 aroid genera and 4494 aligned nucleotides that resulted from adding 11 genera to the 2008 molecular matrix. We also analyzed 81 morphological characters in the context of the molecular phylogeny, using an extended version of the 1997 morpho-anatomical data set.  Key results: The resulting maximum-likelihood phylogeny is well resolved and supported, and most of the 44 larger clades also have morphological or anatomical synapomorphies as well as ecological or geographic cohesion. Of the 44 clades, 16 are here newly circumscribed and informally named. However, some relationships remain poorly supported within the Aroideae subfamily. The most problematic placement is Calla within Aroideae, which confl icts with the distribution of morphological, anatomical, and palynological character states.  Conclusions: The comparison of the molecular analysis with morphological and anatomical data presented here represents an important basis for a new formal classifi cation for the Araceae and for the understanding of the evolution of this ancient family, a monocot group known in the fossil record from the early Cretaceous.

Relationships within the Araceae: Comparison of morphological patterns with molecular phylogenies

International code of nomenclature for cultivated plants.

This chapter reviews plant nomenclature and taxonomy, taking into consideration the several species concepts in wild plants; classification philosophies in wild and cultivated plants such as tomato, potato, lettuce, Brassica, Prunus and wheat; brief history of nomenclature and codes; fundamental differences in the classification and nomenclature of cultivated and wild plants; differences between the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and International Code of Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants (ICNCP); possible new codes of nomenclature; cultivated plant nomenclature and the law; cultivar epithets and trademarks; and recommendations for a universally stable crop nomenclature through changes and use of the ICNCP references.

Plant nomenclature and taxonomy : an horticultural and agronomic perspective

Summary The systematics of cultivated plants need to be divorced from a number of confusing ties with the systematics of plants found in nature. These ties have been developed in time because systematic groups of cultivated plants have often been looked upon as proper taxa and treated accordingly in classifications and nomenclature. It is shown that cultivated plants and their special purpose taxonomy are part of a different context (human society) than the context of taxonomy of plants in nature (evolution). A general concept of systematic groups of cultivated plants, termed "culton", is here proposed to end this confusion. The most important ranks of culta, viz. the cultivar and the cultivar group, are discussed and their definitions purified from imprecise elements. It is shown that the culton/taxon confusion has led to systematic/taxonomic misnomers and a far too complicated nomenclature for cultivated plants.

Culton versus taxon: conceptual issues in cultivated plant systematics

Sequences of three different genes in 69 taxa of Amorphophallus were combined to reconstruct the molecular phylogeny of this species-rich Aroid genus. The data set was analyzed by three different methods, Maximum Parsimony, Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian analysis, producing slightly different tree topologies. Three major clades identified in all analyses reflect the biogeographical distribution of Amorphophallus. Some clades were supported by morphological characters such as sessile/nonsessile stigma, pollen opening mechanism, shape of the main segments of the lamina, growth cycle, and berry colour. When optimised, a nonsessile stigma may have evolved from a sessile one with several reversals. Pollen opening by connective rupturing evolved from pollen opening by pores. Unequally shaped segments of the lamina evolved from equally shaped segments. Simultaneously existing leaf and inflorescences evolved from alternating leaves and inflorescences. Blue, purple, green, and yellow berries evolved from red/orange/white ones.

/pdf/morphological-character-evolution-of-amorphophallus-araceae-1uqkelrvtj.pdf

Morphological Character Evolution of Amorphophallus (Araceae) Based on a Combined Phylogenetic Analysis of trnL, rbcL and LEAFY Second Intron Sequences

Wilbert L. A. Hetterscheid

Papers

Relationships within the Araceae: Comparison of morphological patterns with molecular phylogenies

International code of nomenclature for cultivated plants.

Plant nomenclature and taxonomy : an horticultural and agronomic perspective

Culton versus taxon: conceptual issues in cultivated plant systematics

Morphological Character Evolution of Amorphophallus (Araceae) Based on a Combined Phylogenetic Analysis of trnL, rbcL and LEAFY Second Intron Sequences