Blumea 

About: Blumea is an academic journal published by National Herbarium of the Netherlands. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Genus & Flora Malesiana. It has an ISSN identifier of 0006-5196. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 1568 publications have been published receiving 16328 citations.

Southeast Asia’s changing palaeogeography

Abstract: Geology provides the basis for understanding distributions of faunas and floras in Southeast Asia but only via a complex interplay of plate movements, palaeogeography, ocean circulation and climate. Southeast Asia grew incrementally by the addition of continental fragments, mainly rifted from Australia, and added to the margins of Sundaland as a result of subduction. Sundaland was an almost permanent land area from the beginning of the Mesozoic. The addition of the continental fragments of Southwest Borneo and later East Java–West Sulawesi formed a much larger emergent land area by the Late Cretaceous that extended from Indochina to West Sulawesi. Subduction resumed at the Sundaland margin in the Eocene and this led to widespread rifting within Sundaland, and formed one of the most important barriers at its edge, the Makassar Straits. Australia began to collide with Southeast Asia about 25 million years ago, effectively closing the former deep ocean separating the two continents, and forming the region now known as Wallacea. Collision, volcanism, and subduction-related processes have led to rise of mountains but also formed new oceans within this complex region. Plate tectonic movements and collisions were intimately linked to changing topography, bathymetry and land/sea distributions which have in turn influenced oceanic circulation and climate. As the deep-water barrier between Australia and Southeast Asia was eliminated and mountains rose, deep marine basins also formed. Eustatic changes in sea level further contributed to a complex palaeogeography. The present gateway between the Pacific and Indian Oceans is the only low latitude oceanic passage between the world’s oceans, and is an important influence on local and probably global climate. The gateway is likely to have been just as significant in the past. Understanding the geology, then palaeogeography, and then their oceanic and climatic consequences are vital steps on the way to interpreting present distributions of plants and animals.

A generic monograph of the Meliaceae

Abstract: Of all plant families the Meliaceae is among the more useful to man, chiefly for its high quality timbers and for the ease with which some species can be grown in plantations. Almost confined to the tropics, its species nevertheless pervade them, and occur, often conspicuously, in a variety of habitats from rain forest to mangrove swamp and semidesert. For its size, the family probably contains a wider range of floral and fruit structures than any comparable group. In what other family is there such a diversity of primitive ‘arillate’5 seeds, side-by-side with such an array of derived fruits and seeds, and still connected by intermediates? Or, to take the flower, where else can be found such a diversity of forms, from the minute, but structurally complex, flowers of Aglaia, often no larger than a pin-head, to the moth-pollinated flowers of some Turraea, with their slender staminal tubes reaching a length of 12 cm or more?

The wood anatomical range in Ilex (Aquifoliaceae) and its ecological and phylogenetic significance

Abstract: The wood anatomy of 81 species of Ilex is described in detail. The wood anatomical range encountered is presented in a generic description (p. 196). Data on ontogenetic changes in vessel member length and number of bars per perforation are given for three species. The great amount of variation in mainly quantitative but also in some qualitative features is hardly or not related with subgeneric classification but with latitudinal and altitudinal distribution. In both the northern and southern hemisphere and in both the Old and New World, temperate and subtropical species are characterized by conspicuous growth rings, numerous narrow vessels, relatively short vessel members and few bars per perforation plate, conspicuous spiral thickenings on both vessel and fibre walls, and the fibretracheids are frequently provided with rather numerous conspicuously bordered tangential wall pits. In tropical lowland species growth rings are absent or less marked, the vessels are scanty and wide, the vessel members are long and the number of bars per perforation plate is high. Spirals are lacking or faint, or occur only in a minor part of the axial elements. The fibre-tracheids have usually few pits with more reduced borders on the tangential walls. Tropical montane species resemble the temperate ones to a great extent, but this does not apply to growth rings, spiral thickenings, and frequency and size of fibre-tracheid pits. The only wood sample of a climbing Ilex species from the tropics studied deviates from the general trend in having few bars per perforation plate. The two temperate species I. serrata and I. verticillata are exceptional in lacking spiral thickenings. In all wood characters they resemble the genus Nemopanthus (also Aquifoliaceae) very closely. Comparisons with data from literature and original observations on Prunus, Symplocos, Vaccinium. Viburnum, and to some extent also on Hydrangea, support the view that the gradual differences between temperate and tropical Ilex species conform to a general trend also present in other taxa. Therefore a major climatic influence on wood structure is indicated. This is discussed with reference to the major trends of phylogenetic wood specialization. The fact that within Ilex and Symplocos the tropical lowland species have perforations with the most numerous bars cannot be brought in agreement with the general phenomenon of a rare occurrence of scalariform perforations in tropical lowland floras. Other items such as the parallel between the absence of spiral thickenings and the presence of entire leaf margins, the lack of a clear taxonomic pattern in the wood anatomical variation in Ilex, and observations by former students of Ilex wood anatomy are also discussed.

Citrus (Rutaceae): a review of recent advances in etymology, systematics and medical applications.

Abstract: The naming, introduction and classification of citrus crops and their allies is outlined. Traditional medicinal use and ‘Western’ applications in the treatment of scurvy and obesity, the prevention of AIDS, and in contraception is reviewed. Names for the commercially significant citrangequat (Citrus × georgiana) and the ‘sunrise lime’ or ‘faustrimedin’ (C. × oliveri) are provided.

Notes on Magnoliaceae IV

Abstract: A new system of Magnolioideae (Magnoliaceae) is given, based on the latest available data on DNA and morphology. New combinations and name changes in Malesian Magnolia are given as well as some corrections in previously published names.