Consistent phenological shifts in the making of a biodiversity hotspot: the Cape flora

Background The best documented survival responses of organisms to past climate change on short (glacial-interglacial) timescales are distributional shifts. Despite ample evidence on such timescales for local adaptations of populations at specific sites, the long-term impacts of such changes on evolutionary significant units in response to past climatic change have been little documented. Here we use phylogenies to reconstruct changes in distribution and flowering ecology of the Cape flora - South Africa's biodiversity hotspot - through a period of past (Neogene and Quaternary) changes in the seasonality of rainfall over a timescale of several million years. Results Forty-three distributional and phenological shifts consistent with past climatic change occur across the flora, and a comparable number of clades underwent adaptive changes in their flowering phenology (9 clades; half of the clades investigated) as underwent distributional shifts (12 clades; two thirds of the clades investigated). Of extant Cape angiosperm species, 14-41% have been contributed by lineages that show distributional shifts consistent with past climate change, yet a similar proportion (14-55%) arose from lineages that shifted flowering phenology. Conclusions Adaptive changes in ecology at the scale we uncover in the Cape and consistent with past climatic change have not been documented for other floras. Shifts in climate tolerance appear to have been more important in this flora than is currently appreciated, and lineages that underwent such shifts went on to contribute a high proportion of the flora's extant species diversity. That shifts in phenology, on an evolutionary timescale and on such a scale, have not yet been detected for other floras is likely a result of the method used; shifts in flowering phenology cannot be detected in the fossil record

The Acacia controversy resulting from minority rule at the Vienna Nomenclature Section : much more than arcane arguments and complex technicalities

The arguments towards resolving the Acacia nomenclatural controversy put forth by Thiele & al. (2011) are reviewed and rebutted. We argue that a truly pragmatic and, moreover, defensible and equitable alternative to accepting the retypification of Acacia Mill. with a conserved type would be to have the 2006 International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, excluding this retypification, serve as the basis for discussions at the Nomenclature Section of the Melbourne International Botanical Congress in 2011. We, and a large component of the international taxonomic community, and beyond, remain convinced that the minority rule voting procedure used at Vienna on Acacia was inappropriate, resulting in animosity that will without any doubt linger until this situation is rectified. Such a minority rule procedure has never in the history of Nomenclature Sections been implemented before. Exclusion of the Acacia retypification can be achieved through a democratic process by objecting to its inclusion when the printed (2006) Code comes up for adoption at the start of the Nomenclature Section. This is perfectly within the established process that has been used in past Section meetings. The integrity of the Code will suffer permanent damage if the retypification of Acacia Mill. with a conserved type is not removed from the ICBN, especially as it ended up there through a minority decision.http://www.botanik.univie.ac.at/iapt/s_taxon.ph

Extinction Risk and Diversification Are Linked in a Plant Biodiversity Hotspot

Plant extinction risks in the Cape, South Africa differ from those for vertebrates worldwide, with young and fast-evolving plant lineages marching towards extinction at the fastest rate, but independently of human effects

A reappraisal of Adinobotrys Dunn (Fabaceae) with two new combinations.

Two new species from Borneo that have been described in the genus are shown here to belong in . The new combinations and have consequently been made, bringing the total number of species in the genus to four. A morphological key and taxonomic conspectus is provided for all species

Three new species of Millettia (Leguminosae-Papilionoideae: Millettieae) from the Indo-Chinese region

Three new species of the genus Millettia; M. calcicola Mattapha, G.P. Lewis & Hawkins, M. fulva Mattapha, Forest & Hawkins and M. khaoyaiensis Mattapha, Schrire & Suddee, are described and illustrated. Key diagnostic characters of these species are discussed

Acacia, the 2011 Nomenclature Section in Melbourne, and beyond

This paper briefly reports on the developments surrounding the Acacia name conservation controversy since the Nomenclature Section meeting at the Seventeenth International Botanical Congress at Vienna in 2005. Actions taken at Vienna led to the listing of Acacia Mill. with a conserved type in Appendix III (p. 286) of the current printed version of the International code of botanical nomenclature. While decisions taken at Nomenclature Sections generally tend to resolve nomenclatural disputes, the actions taken in Vienna with regard to Acacia — i.e., treating the proposal to conserve the name Acacia with a conserved type as approved even though the majority of the votes cast were opposed to the proposal — has only resulted in increased controversy. Today, the Acacia listing in the Code continues to be met with considerable resistance from the global plant taxonomic community and beyond. We believe the “minority rule” approach used in Vienna was contrary to the procedural rules established in Vienna. As a result, an objection to the acceptance of the Vienna Code as currently printed with the Acacia listing will be raised at the Nomenclature Section meeting during the Eighteenth International Botanical Congress in Melbourne in 2011. A procedure is outlined for handling this objection that we hope will allow the botanical community to finally resolve this matter