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The native and naturalized species of Silene L. in southern Africa are reviewed, with full synonomy and the description of two new species from the West Coast of Western Cape. Eight native species and three naturalized species are recognized, including the first identification in southern Africa of the Mediterranean S. nocturna L. The identity of S...
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... time: Aug.-Oct. Distribution and ecology: largely restricted to the entrance to Saldanha Bay, where it is known from the breakwater and from across the lagoon in Postberg Reserve ( Figure 10), but also known from shortly inland on the Farm Waterboerskraal east of Hopefield. The species is restricted to calcareous sands and consolidated calcrete dunes. ...
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... and ecology: a local endemic of the limestone hills flanking the mouth of Saldanha Bay (Figure 10), occurring on rocky slopes among coastal scrub. Plants mostly occur on the slopes or summit of hills, with the annual stems straggling through surrounding shrubs, but a population at Stony Head thrives on exposed limestone pavement directly facing the ocean. ...
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... and ecology: restricted to the coastal forelands of the southwestern Cape, from Saldanha Bay along the West Coast to the Cape Flats, and at Vermont near Hermanus (Figure 10), occurring in deep, calcareous sands in strandveld thicket. ...
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... and distribution: originally described from Plettenberg Bay, where it is still known only from the type and thus possibly extinct locally, the species is now also known to occur near Bredasdorp, more than 200 km to the west, in the De Hoop nature Reserve immediately west of Potberg ( Figure 10). Here it is restricted to limestone outcrops near the coast, either fringing seasonal vleis or directly facing the sea. ...
Similar publications
Seed shape in Silene species is often described by means of adjectives such as reniform, globose, and orbicular, but the application of seed shape for species classification requires quantification. A method for the description and quantification of seed shape consists in the comparison with geometric models. Geometric models based on mathematical...
Seed description in morphology is often based on adjectives such as “spherical”, “globular”, or “reniform”, but this does not provide a quantitative method. A new morphological approach based on the comparison of seed images with geometric models provides a seed description in Silene species on a quantitative basis. The novelty of the proposed meth...
Citations
... In addition, a scarce number of species grow in South Africa (e.g., S. burchellii Otth. [16] and S. undulata Aiton [17]), or in diverse locations along South America, as the montane tropical biomes of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina (e.g., S. thysanodes Fenzl. and S. mandonii (Rohrb.) ...
Seed morphology is an important source of information for plant taxonomy. Nevertheless, the characters under study are diverse, and a simple, unified method is lacking in the literature. A new method for the classification of seeds of the genus Silene based on optical images and image analysis has recently been described on the basis of morphological measurements of the lateral seed views. According to the outline of their silhouettes, seeds from 52 species (49 of Silene and three related species) were classified in three groups: smooth, rugose and echinate, revealing remarkable differences between these groups. This methodology has been applied here to 51 new species, making a total of 100 species of Silene analyzed so far. According to our data, a new group was described, termed papillose. The results showed morphological differences between the four mentioned seed groups, with reduced values of circularity for dorsal and lateral seed views in the papillose and echinate groups and reduced values of solidity in the papillose seeds. The method was applied to the analysis of individual as well as to average seed silhouettes and some of the differences between groups were maintained in both cases.
... Although sect. Dipterospermae was well characterized (monochasial inflorescence, calyx without reticulated veins, and reniform seeds bear undulate wings etc.) in several former studies (e.g., Rohrbach 1868, Chowdhuri 1957, Greuter 1995, Manning & Goldblatt 2012a, recently it is synonymised to broadly circumscribed section S. sect. Silene together with several other sections [e.g., Fruticulosae (Willkomm 1854:73) Chowdhuri (1957, Rubellae (Battandier 1888: 137) Oxelman & Greuter (1995: 575), Nicaeenses (Rohrbach 1867: 375) Talavera (1988] that mostly include annual species (Jafari et al. 2020, Moiloa et al. 2021). ...
Silene sordida is a Southwest Anatolian endemic that shows highly contradicting signals regarding its actual classification. Using morphological, molecular, and palynological data we here investigate phylogeny and taxonomy of S. sordida. Morphological and palynological features of S. sordida are compared to the species known as very closely related to S. sordida. In addition, we generated DNA sequences of three nuclear and one plastid loci from S. sordida and some allied species belonging to several sections and analyzed these data together with the available sequence data of corresponding taxa. Our findings strongly support the unrelatedness of S. sordida with the section Atocion. The relationship between S. sordida and the section Cryptoneurae and S. odontopetala remains unstable among the four loci analyzed. Both morphological and molecular evidence suggest the recognition of a new monotypic section (here named “Sordidae”).
... We further verified the edaphic occurrence of species for key taxonomic groups from various descriptions, revisions and monographs (Levyns, 1954;Nordenstam, 1968;Grau, 1973;Verdoorn, 1980;Puff, 1986;Linder, 1990;Schubert & Wyk, 1997;Linder & Mann, 1998;Whitehouse, 2002;Van Jaarsveld & Koutnik, 2004;Goldblatt & Manning, 2007Manning, Goldblatt & Forest, 2009;, 2012bKöcke et al., 2010;Nkonki, 2013;Wolfe, 2013;Fish et al., 2015;Bello et al., 2017;Stirton & Muasya, 2017;Bergh & Manning, 2019;Manning, 2019;Alonso et al., 2021), adding those species that were not included during the previous steps. As a final verification, two speciose families in our flora were checked by taxonomic experts to assess the validity of species we included (Ericaceae, checked by Ross C. Turner; Rutaceae, checked by Terry H. Trinder-Smith). ...
The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) is globally recognized as a hotspot of plant diversity and endemism. Much of this diversity stems from radiations associated with infertile acid sands derived from sandstones of the geologically ancient Cape Fold Belt. These ancient montane floras acted as the source for most subsequent radiations on the Cape lowlands during the Oligocene (on silcretes) and Mio-Pliocene (on shales). The geomorphic evolution of the CFR during the Plio-Pleistocene led to the first large-scale occurrence of calcareous substrata (coastal dunes and calcarenites) along the Cape coast, providing novel habitats for plant colonization and ensuing evolution of the Cape coastal flora-the most recent diversification event in the Cape. Few studies have investigated the CFR's dune and calcarenite floras, and fewer still have done so in an evolutionary context. Here, we present a unified flora of these coastal calcareous habitats of the CFR and analyze the taxonomic, biological and geographical traits of its component species to gain insights into its assembly. The Cape coastal flora, comprising 1,365 species, is taxonomically dominated by the Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Iridaceae, with Erica, Aspalathus and Agathosma being the most speciose genera. In terms of growth-form mix, there is a roughly equal split between herbaceous and woody species, the former dominated by geophytes and forbs, the latter by dwarf and low shrubs. Species associated with the Fynbos biome constitute the bulk of the flora, while the Subtropical Thicket and Wetland biomes also house a substantial number of species. The Cape coastal flora is a distinctly southern African assemblage, with 61% of species belonging to southern African lineages (including 35% of species with Cape affinity) and 59% being endemic to the CFR. Unique among floras from the Cape and coastal Mediterranean-climate regions is the relatively high proportion of species associated with tropical lineages, several of which are restricted to calcareous substrata of the CFR. The endemic, calcicolous component of the flora, constituting 40% of species, represents 6% of the Cape's regional plant diversity-high tallies compared to other biodiversity hotspots. Most coastal-flora endemics emerged during the Plio-Pleistocene as a product of ecological speciation upon the colonization of calcareous substrata, with the calcifugous fynbos floras of montane acid substrata being the most significant source of this diversification, especially on the typically shallow soils of calcarenite landscapes. On the other hand, renosterveld floras, associated with edaphically benign soils that are widespread on the CFR lowlands, have not been a major source of lineages to the coastal flora. Our findings suggest that, over and above the strong pH gradient that exists on calcareous substrata, soil depth and texture may act as important edaphic filters to incorporating lineages from floras on juxtaposed substrata in the CFR.
... The bulk of phylogenetic studies on Silene have focused on areas where the genus is most diverse (i.e. the Mediterranean Basin extending across Eurasia), with few comprehensive studies on native African taxa. The majority of the African taxa occur in North Africa, with several recorded in sub-Saharan Africa radiating further into southern Africa (Manning and Goldblatt, 2012a). Comprehensive taxonomic classifications of the African taxa are still largely based on regional floristic treatments e.g. ...
... Comprehensive taxonomic classifications of the African taxa are still largely based on regional floristic treatments e.g. Zambia (Bingham et al., 2020), North Africa (Maire, 1963;Dobignard and Chatelain, 2011) and southern Africa (Manning and Goldblatt, 2012a). The southern African taxa were misunderstood by earlier authors such as Burman (1768) and Thunberg (1794), who assigned several of the species to known European taxa. ...
... The first comprehensive taxonomic treatment of the southern African taxa was that of Sonder (1860), followed by several advancements by Rohrbach (1868), Bocquet (1977), Masson (1989) and Goldblatt and Manning (2000). Most recently, Manning and Goldblatt (2012a) provided a comprehensive taxonomic treatment of the southern African native and naturalized taxa. ...
Silene (Caryophyllaceae) is distributed predominantly in the northern Hemisphere, where it is most diverse around the Mediterranean Basin. The genus is also well represented in North Africa, extending into tropical, sub-Saharan and southern Africa. Eight native species are recognized in southern Africa, taxonomically placed in two sections: Elisanthe and Silene s.l. Although the taxonomy of the southern African taxa has recently been revised, their phylogenetic relationships and biogeographic history remain unclear. This study aims to infer the phylogenetic position and geographic origins of the southern African taxa. We generated DNA sequences of nuclear and plastid loci from several individuals belonging to all eight species of Silene recognized from southern Africa, and combined our DNA sequences with existing data representing species from major clades (i.e. sections) based on the recently revised Silene infrageneric taxonomy. We used a Bayesian coalescent species tree continuous diffusion approach to co-estimate the species tree and the ancestral areas of representative members of the genus. Our results show that the perennial southern African members of section Elisanthe form a strongly-supported clade with the Eurasian annual S. noctiflora and the Central Asian perennial S. turkestanica. The rest of the perennial species form a strongly-supported clade together with the annual S. aethiopica, which is nested in a larger Mediterranean clade comprising mostly annual species classified in section Silene s.l. Estimates of ancestral areas indicate a late Pleistocene dispersal to southern Africa from central and East Africa for the sub-Saharan members of section Silene s.l. The Elisanthe clade is inferred to have colonized southern Africa through long-distance dispersal from Eurasia during the late Pleistocene. Our findings support the hypothesis of a relatively recent colonization into southern Africa resulting from two independent dispersal events during the Pleistocene.
... Silene L. is a large genus of the family Caryophyllaceae, with around 870 currently (Jafari et al. 2020) recognized species that are mainly distributed in the northern hemisphere, South Africa and South America, in temperate to arctic regions and a wide range of habitats (Manning and Goldblatt 2012, Frajman et al. 2018, Jafari et al. 2020). Chowdhuri (1957) delimited 44 sections and his taxonomy has been applied by authors of local floras in the Mediterranean region and SW Asia, including Palestine (Zohary 1966), Turkey (Coode and Cullen 1967), the Iranian Highlands (Melzheimer 1988), the Flora Europaea (Chater et al. 1993), and Iraq (Townsend et al. 2016). ...
A putatively monophyletic group of annual Silene species is revised taxonomically and described as the new section S. sect. Arenosae. The species of this section were previously treated as a part of a widely circumscribed and polyphyletic S. sect. Rigidulae. Silene sect. Arenosae as circumscribed here consists of nine species. Members of the section show a predominantly E Mediterranean to SW Asian distribution pattern from Turkey southward to Egypt and eastward to Iran and Pakistan, although most of the species have a limited distribution range. The species of S. sect. Arenosae are characterized by narrowly lanceolate calyx teeth, which are often highly polymorphic, and lanceolate to oblanceolate (non-spathulate) basal leaves. The provided taxonomic revision is based on morphological characters and supported by phylogenetic analyses of two nuclear loci (nrITS and an intron of the RPB2 gene) and one chloroplast locus (the intron of the rps16 gene). The species descriptions are formalized using a novel implementation of the Prometheus Description Model.
Notes on infrageneric divisions of Silene proposed in the paper "A new taxonomic backbone for the infrageneric classification of the species-rich genus Silene (Caryophyllaceae)", as supplementary Appendix S6, including “Diagnosis”, “Distribution”, “Species phylogenetically analyzed”, and “Notes on phylogeny and circumscription”.
