Abstract
The genus Anemone and its close relatives (Anemoninae) encompass about 210 species. According to the most recent taxonomic survey of the Ranunculaceae (Tamura, 1995), this diversity is clearly centred in the Northern Hemisphere, but distribution is world-wide, and interesting biogeographic extensions exist into the Southern Hemisphere (Tasmania and New Zealand, South America, eastward to South Africa). Our understanding of the phylogenetic structure of Anemoninae has been greatly improved by a DNA restriction site analysis (Hoot & al., 1994; Hoot, 1995) that has demonstrated two clades, one with the chromosome base number x = 8 (including the majority of Anemone, but also several satellite genera as Knowltonia and Pulsatilla) and another with x = 7 (consisting of some Anemone groups and Hepatica). With respect to Southern Hemisphere members, Hoot & al. (1994) have shown that the Tasmanian A. crassifolia is closely related to the South African A. caffra (and Knowltonia). They placed the latter into the informal Caffra group, and the former, together with the New Zealand A. tenuicaulis (for which no DNA data were available then) into the Crassifolia group of the x = 8 clade. Tamura (1995) also accommodated A. crassifolia and A. tenuicaulis together in subg. Rivularidium sect. Crassifolia, whereas Ehrendorfer (1995) placed them in subg. Meridium. On the basis of new DNA sequence data (ITS and rbcliatpB) Schuettpelz & Hoot (2000) support the links between A. crassifolia and A. caffra + A. knowltonia within the x = 8 clade, but now correct the position of A. tenuicaulis, placing it into the x = 7 clade not far from the northeastern Asiatic A. dichotoma but without considering South American taxa. For the link South Africa-Tasmania they suggest an ancient Gondwanan distribution, for the connection Asia-New Zealand an Australasian island-hopping pattern. From our current and independent work on the intergenic cpDNA spacer rbcL/atpB in Anemoninae we would like to comment on these phylogenetic and biogeographical suggestions. Notwithstanding our still incomplete molecular analysis of Anemone (Samuel & Ehrendorfer, in prep.), available new sequences strongly support placement of the New Zealand endemic A. tenuicaulis from a position close to the Tasmanian A. crassifolia in the x = 8 clade to the x = 7 clade of Anemoninae (Fig. 1). This is in line with considerable differences in morphology (Parkin & Sledge, 1933) and palynology (Huynh, 1970a, b) between the two species. No karyological data are available for A. crassifolia, but for A. tenuicaulis Hair (1963) has reported a reliable
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