Plant Remains as Sources to Cultural History in Southeast Norway

Plant remains are valuable sources for cultural history. Humans and animals live inextricably together with plants. This article investigates how a large dataset of botanical macrofossils can give insights into cultural history in southeastern Norway in the period 400 BC– AD 400. In this period, iron was introduced in the production of weapons and tools, which led people to change practices in their interaction with nature. Farming is dependent on a great variety of environmental resources for cultivation and the gathering of food, medicine, and fodder. By combining archaeological and botanical data from 40 localities from Viken and Innlandet counties this article investigates the macrofossil diversity within the localities, as well as the regions they belong to. All archaeobotanical finds from the localities have been systematized and analyzed quantitatively. The results reveal patterns in regional biodiversity as well as a representation of species in structures and features in archaeological sites

Desert Plants and Deserted Islands : Systematics and Ethnobotany in Caryophyllaceae

Background. Caryophyllaceae is a large and cosmopolitic flowering plant family, however the systematics of many of its basal groups has been unclear, due to a lack of unambiguous morphology. Some members of Caryophyllaceae are used medicinally, e.g. Corrigiola roots in Morocco. Monitoring the trade in medicinal plants is complicated due to the absence of useful identification characters in plant products such as roots, bark, and powders. This thesis aims at elucidating the systematics and the ethnobotany of some of the basal clades in Caryophyllaceae. Methods. A comprehensive sampling from herbarium as well as market and field collected material was used in systematic studies combining morphological investigation, molecular phylogenetic and molecular dating analyses. Results. The data show that Polycarpon is polyphyletic, that Sphaerocoma is sister to Pollichia and shows some intraspecific variation, that Sanctambrosia falls within the genus Spergularia, and that both Spergula and Spergularia are monophyletic. Preliminary data suggest that Polycarpaea is polyphyletic and should be split into three larger and several smaller genera, that the members of Paronychia subgen. Anaplonychia will need to be transferred to Herniaria to maintain monophyly, and that Caryophyllaceae emerged during the Paleocene. All the major extant lineages originated in the Oligocene and diversified later. Using molecular identification it was possible to identify around 50% of the Moroccan medicinal roots to species level and an additional 30% to genus level. Discussion and conclusions. The polyphyletic Polycarpon needs to be split into at least three separate genera, but no name changes were made pending further research. The two species of Sphaerocoma were merged into one species with two subspecies. The San Ambrosio Island endemic Sanctambrosia, the only tree-like plant in Caryophyllaceae, is probably the result of a long distance dispersal event and its woody habit and gynodioecy are probably caused by inbreeding depression. Sanctambrosia manicata is transferred to Spergularia. Molecular identification put into practice on traded medicinal roots has a somewhat lower success rate than most theoretical studies, indicating that a global barcoding database would need to include reference sequences from a broad range of populations for each species

Desert Plants and Deserted Islands : Systematics and Ethnobotany in Caryophyllaceae

Background. Caryophyllaceae is a large and cosmopolitic flowering plant family, however the systematics of many of its basal groups has been unclear, due to a lack of unambiguous morphology. Some members of Caryophyllaceae are used medicinally, e.g. Corrigiola roots in Morocco. Monitoring the trade in medicinal plants is complicated due to the absence of useful identification characters in plant products such as roots, bark, and powders. This thesis aims at elucidating the systematics and the ethnobotany of some of the basal clades in Caryophyllaceae. Methods. A comprehensive sampling from herbarium as well as market and field collected material was used in systematic studies combining morphological investigation, molecular phylogenetic and molecular dating analyses. Results. The data show that Polycarpon is polyphyletic, that Sphaerocoma is sister to Pollichia and shows some intraspecific variation, that Sanctambrosia falls within the genus Spergularia, and that both Spergula and Spergularia are monophyletic. Preliminary data suggest that Polycarpaea is polyphyletic and should be split into three larger and several smaller genera, that the members of Paronychia subgen. Anaplonychia will need to be transferred to Herniaria to maintain monophyly, and that Caryophyllaceae emerged during the Paleocene. All the major extant lineages originated in the Oligocene and diversified later. Using molecular identification it was possible to identify around 50% of the Moroccan medicinal roots to species level and an additional 30% to genus level. Discussion and conclusions. The polyphyletic Polycarpon needs to be split into at least three separate genera, but no name changes were made pending further research. The two species of Sphaerocoma were merged into one species with two subspecies. The San Ambrosio Island endemic Sanctambrosia, the only tree-like plant in Caryophyllaceae, is probably the result of a long distance dispersal event and its woody habit and gynodioecy are probably caused by inbreeding depression. Sanctambrosia manicata is transferred to Spergularia. Molecular identification put into practice on traded medicinal roots has a somewhat lower success rate than most theoretical studies, indicating that a global barcoding database would need to include reference sequences from a broad range of populations for each species

Desert Plants and Deserted Islands : Systematics and Ethnobotany in Caryophyllaceae

Background. Caryophyllaceae is a large and cosmopolitic flowering plant family, however the systematics of many of its basal groups has been unclear, due to a lack of unambiguous morphology. Some members of Caryophyllaceae are used medicinally, e.g. Corrigiola roots in Morocco. Monitoring the trade in medicinal plants is complicated due to the absence of useful identification characters in plant products such as roots, bark, and powders. This thesis aims at elucidating the systematics and the ethnobotany of some of the basal clades in Caryophyllaceae. Methods. A comprehensive sampling from herbarium as well as market and field collected material was used in systematic studies combining morphological investigation, molecular phylogenetic and molecular dating analyses. Results. The data show that Polycarpon is polyphyletic, that Sphaerocoma is sister to Pollichia and shows some intraspecific variation, that Sanctambrosia falls within the genus Spergularia, and that both Spergula and Spergularia are monophyletic. Preliminary data suggest that Polycarpaea is polyphyletic and should be split into three larger and several smaller genera, that the members of Paronychia subgen. Anaplonychia will need to be transferred to Herniaria to maintain monophyly, and that Caryophyllaceae emerged during the Paleocene. All the major extant lineages originated in the Oligocene and diversified later. Using molecular identification it was possible to identify around 50% of the Moroccan medicinal roots to species level and an additional 30% to genus level. Discussion and conclusions. The polyphyletic Polycarpon needs to be split into at least three separate genera, but no name changes were made pending further research. The two species of Sphaerocoma were merged into one species with two subspecies. The San Ambrosio Island endemic Sanctambrosia, the only tree-like plant in Caryophyllaceae, is probably the result of a long distance dispersal event and its woody habit and gynodioecy are probably caused by inbreeding depression. Sanctambrosia manicata is transferred to Spergularia. Molecular identification put into practice on traded medicinal roots has a somewhat lower success rate than most theoretical studies, indicating that a global barcoding database would need to include reference sequences from a broad range of populations for each species

Data from: A giant spurrey on a tiny island: on the phylogenetic position of Sanctambrosia manicata (Caryophyllaceae) and the generic circumscriptions of Spergula, Spergularia and Rhodalsine

The only member of the generally herbaceous family Caryophyllaceae that may grow to a small tree is Sanctambrosia manicata, endemic to remote San Ambrosio Island, off the coast of Chile. The monospecific Sanctambrosia has been suggested to be closely related to Spergula and Spergularia (spurreys) on the basis of morphology, despite its treelike habit and gynodioecy. A plastid DNA dataset (ndhF, rps16, trnL-F) is used to investigate the relationships of Sanctambrosia and other members of Sperguleae. Sanctambrosia manicata is shown to be nested in a clade of New World and Australian Spergularia and the new combination Spergularia manicata is proposed. The volcanic San Ambrosio has been estimated to be almost three million years old, and S. manicata presumably evolved its treelike habit and gynodioecy over a short period of time. Spergula and Spergularia are monophyletic and recognizable by their number of carpels, five in Spergula and three in Spergularia. Spergularia fallax, which resembles Spergula in leaf characters, is shown to be sister to all other species of Spergularia. Minuartia subg. Rhodalsine belongs in Sperguleae and is sister to Spergula and Spergularia together, which supports the recent resurrection of Rhodalsine at the generic level

A plant that Linnaeus forgot: Taxonomic revision of Rhodalsine (Caryophyllaceae).

The mainly Mediterranean genus Rhodalsine (Caryophyllaceae) is revised and a single species, R. geniculata, is recognized, distributed from the Canary Islands in the west to Somalia in the east. The history of the taxon, which was known already during the 17th century but entirely overlooked by Linnaeus, is outlined. Variation and taxonomy are discussed and illustrations and a distribution map are provided. Many names are placed in synonymy and most of the names are typified, including six lectotypes designated here

Combined plastid sequences Sanctambrosia et al nexus

File with three plastid DNA sequence alignments in Nexus forma