A smaller Macadamia from a more vagile tribe: inference of phylogenetic relationships, divergence times, and diaspore evolution in Macadamia and relatives (tribe Macadamieae; Proteaceae)

Abstract

Tribe Macadamieae (91 spp., 16 genera; Proteaceae) is widespread across the southern hemisphere on all major fragments of Gondwana except New Zealand and India. Macadamia is cultivated outside its natural range as a "nut" crop (notably in Hawaii, where it is the principal orchard crop). We sampled seven DNA regions and 53 morphological characters from the tribe to infer its phylogeny and address the common assumption that the distribution of the extant diversity of the tribe arose by the rafting of ancestors on Gondwanan fragments. Macadamia proves to be paraphyletic with respect to the African genus Brabejum, the South American genus Panopsis, and the Australian species Orites megacarpus. We erect two new generic names, Nothorites and Lasjia, to produce monophyly at that rank. The earliest disjunctions in the tribe are inferred to be the result of long-distance dispersal out of Australia (with one possible exception), rather than vicariance. Evolution of tardy fruit dehiscence is correlated with these dispersals, and the onset of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) precedes them. We suggest that the ancestors of extant diversity arrived on their respective continents via the ACC, and we recognize that this is a mechanism precluded, rather than facilitated, by Gondwana's terrestrial continuity.

Time‐calibrated phylogeny of the woody Australian genus Hakea (Proteaceae) supports multiple origins of insect‐pollination among bird‐pollinated ancestors

“…Data for 70 of these species are presented here for the fi rst time; data from the rest fi rst were presented by Mast and Givnish (2002) or Mast et al (2005Mast et al ( , 2008. The 75 species include 55 (of 149) species of Hakea , one species from each of the other 11 genera in tribe Embothrieae, one species from each of the other three tribes in subfamily Grevilleoideae, one species from each of the other four subfamilies in Proteaceae, and one species from each of the other two families of Proteales been implicated in fl oral pollination ( Proctor and Yeo, 1973 ).…”

“…We used Yang ' s (1997) baseml program in PAML version 3.13 and Thorne ' s estbranches and multidivtime programs in the way described by Mast et al (2008) . The tree topology inferred from the combined molecular and morphological data (the " total-evidence tree " ; Kluge, 1989 ) was used for the fi nal step with multidivtime.…”

Seed Plant Endemism on Hainan Island: A Framework for Conservation Actions

“…Mast et al (2008) indicate that the closest relatives of the Hainan species Heliciopsis lobalata are found in Australia and New Caledonia; however, this phylogenetic study does not include any additional taxa of Heliciopsis. The vast majority of the phylogenies place the Hainan endemics as terminal branches suggesting a recent origin for these taxa.…”

Macadamia domestication in Hawai‘i

“…Four species of Macadamia F. Muell. are currently recognised (Mast et al 2008): M. integrifolia Maiden et Betche and M. tetraphylla LAS Johnson that produce moderate sized (1-2 cm diameter) edible kernels; and M. ternifolia F. Muell. and M. jansenii C.L.…”