American Palms Research Articles

Recent and local diversification of Central American understorey palms

AbstractAimCentral America is largely covered by hyperdiverse, yet poorly understood, rain forests. Understorey palms are diverse components of these forests, but little is known about their historical assembly. It is not clear when palms in Central America reached present diversity levels and whether most species arrived from neighbouring regions or evolved locally. We addressed these questions using the most species‐rich American palm clades indicative of rain forests. We reconstructed and compared their phylogenomic and biogeographical history with the diversification of 54 other plant lineages, to gain a better understanding of the processes that shaped the assembly of Central American rain forests.LocationCentral America.Time periodCretaceous to present.Major taxa studiedArecaceae: Arecoideae: Bactridinae, Chamaedoreeae, Geonomateae.MethodsWe sampled 218 species through fieldwork and living collections. We sequenced their genomic DNA using target sequence‐capture procedures. Using 12 calibration points, we reconstructed dated phylogenies under three approaches (multispecies coalescent, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference), conducted biogeographical analyses (dispersal–extinction–cladogenesis) and estimated phylogenetic diversity metrics.ResultsDated phylogenies revealed intense diversification in Central America from 12 Ma. Local diversification events were four times more frequent than dispersal events, and we found strong phylogenetic clustering in relationship to Central America.Main conclusionsOur results suggest that most understorey palm species that characterize the Central American rain forests today evolved locally after repeated dispersal events, mostly from South America. Understorey palms in Central American rain forests diversified primarily after closure of the Central American Seaway at c. 13 Ma, suggesting that the Great American Biotic Interchange was a major trigger for plant diversification in Central American rain forests. This recent diversification contrasts with the much earlier existence of rain forest palms in neighbouring South America since c. 58 Ma. We found similar timings of diversification in 54 other seed plant lineages, suggesting an unexpectedly recent assembly of the hyperdiverse Central American flora.

Hydrophobic Waxes in Ivory Nuts Affect Surface Modification by Atmospheric Air Plasma Jet

Ivory nuts, bioproducts from South American palms, possess a hard, water-insoluble, and microporous endosperm with a strong resemblance to elephant ivory. The nuts sustainable appeal made them popular as eco-friendly substitutes to ivory and, more recently, microbeads. However, their hygroscopicity and mannan composition impart susceptibility to deterioration by microbes and insects. Cold plasma treatment has been widely investigated as a clean and cost-effective procedure for seed disinfection and surface modification. Hence, in this work, ivory nut endosperm was treated by an air plasma jet to modify wettability. Plasma treated samples were characterized by the water contact angle, AFM, and Raman imaging. Water contact angle results presented an increase from (31.5 ± 8.7)º to (78.9 ± 5.4)º, demonstrating surface hydrophobization. This result was attributed to the modification of surface chemistry by migration and repolymerization of extractives promoted by plasma treatment. AFM results evidenced the formation of a heterogeneous layer containing lamellar features similar to plant epicuticular waxes. Besides, principal component analysis of Raman imaging results highlighted spectral contributions from wax, xylan, mannan, and lignin. These results demonstrate that atmospheric air plasma jets can be employed for ivory nut hydrophobization with no need for additional precursors, altering surface chemistry by crosslinking endosperm native substances.

Genotyping by sequencing reveals contrasting patterns of population structure, ecologically mediated divergence, and long-distance dispersal in North American palms.

Comparative studies can provide powerful insights into processes that affect population divergence and thereby help to elucidate the mechanisms by which contemporary populations may respond to environmental change. Furthermore, approaches such as genotyping by sequencing (GBS) provide unprecedented power for resolving genetic differences among species and populations. We therefore used GBS to provide a genomewide perspective on the comparative population structure of two palm genera, Washingtonia and Brahea, on the Baja California peninsula, a region of high landscape and ecological complexity. First, we used phylogenetic analysis to address taxonomic uncertainties among five currently recognized species. We resolved three main clades, the first corresponding to W. robusta and W. filifera, the second to B. brandegeei and B. armata, and the third to B. edulis from Guadalupe Island. Focusing on the first two clades, we then delved deeper by investigating the underlying population structure. Striking differences were found, with GBS uncovering four distinct Washingtonia populations and identifying a suite of loci associated with temperature, consistent with ecologically mediated divergence. By contrast, individual mountain ranges could be resolved in Brahea and few loci were associated with environmental variables, implying a more prominent role of neutral divergence. Finally, evidence was found for long‐distance dispersal events in Washingtonia but not Brahea, in line with knowledge of the dispersal mechanisms of these palms including the possibility of human‐mediated dispersal. Overall, our study demonstrates the power of GBS together with a comparative approach to elucidate markedly different patterns of genomewide divergence mediated by multiple effectors.

Fundamental species traits explain provisioning services of tropical American palms.

The well-being of the global human population rests on provisioning services delivered by 12% of the Earth's ∼400,000 plant species1. Plant utilization by humans is influenced by species traits2-4, but it is not well understood which traits underpin different human needs5. Here, we focus on palms (Arecaceae), one of the most economically important plant groups globally6, and demonstrate that provisioning services related to basic needs, such as food and medicine, show a strong link to fundamental functional and geographic traits. We integrate data from 2,201 interviews on plant utilization from three biomes in South America-spanning 68 communities, 43 ethnic groups and 2,221 plant uses-with a dataset of 4 traits (leaf length, stem volume, fruit volume, geographic range size) and a species-level phylogeny7. For all 208 palm species occurring in our study area, we test for relations between their traits and perceived value. We find that people preferentially use large, widespread species rather than small, narrow-ranged species, and that different traits are linked to different uses. Further, plant size and geographic range size are stronger predictors of ecosystem service realization for palm services related to basic human needs than less-basic needs (for example, ritual). These findings suggest that reliance on plant size and availability may have prevented our optimal realization of wild-plant services, since ecologically rare yet functionally important (for example, chemically) clades may have been overlooked. Beyond expanding our understanding of how local people use biodiversity in mega-diverse regions, our trait- and phylogeny-based approach helps to understand the processes that underpin ecosystem service realization, a necessary step to meet societal needs in a changing world with a growing human population5,8.

Book review: The palm book

news and update ISSN 1948‐6596 book review The palm book The Book of Palms, by Carl Friedrich Phillip von Martius [a reprint of the 240 illustrations from C. F. P. von Martius’ Historia Naturalis Palmarum, published in installments between 1823 and 1850, with an introduction by H. Walter Lack] 2009, Taschen, 442 pp. ISBN: 978‐3‐8365‐1779‐9 Price: £99.99 (Hardback); http://www.taschen.com/ This is a magnificent reprint of one of the most influential books in the botanical literature, Mar‐ tius’ Historia Naturalis Palmarum, famed for its scientific accuracy and aesthetic qualities. Carl Friedrich Phillip von Martius (1795–1868) was an assistant at the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sci‐ ences when in 1817, aged 22, he was asked by Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria, to join an expedition that was sent to Brazil by Franz I, Em‐ peror of Austria. The expedition was held on the occasion of the marriage of Franz I’s daughter Leo‐ poldine to Dom Pedro, eldest son of Joao VI, King of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve. The wedding was celebrated in Vienna on 13th May 1817, but later confirmed in Rio de Janeiro, and the 13‐man natural history expedition was organized to foster relationships and increase trade between Brazil and the European kingdoms with interest in these new frontiers. The celebration in Rio was held on 6 November 1817, and following that, Martius and his zoological companion Johan Baptiste Spix set out on a 2200 km long journey to the interior of Brazil. During the journey they amassed large quantities of natural history specimens, and when Martius returned to Munich on 8th December 1820, almost four years had passed. Martius and Spix had brought back considerable collections of rocks and minerals, 350 species of birds, 130 am‐ phibians, 116 fish, 2700 insects, 80 arachnids, 50 crustaceans and 6500 plants. The other members of the expedition had returned similar quantities to Vienna and other European museums. Apparently being a natural historian and collector at that time was something important to the political powers. King Maximilian I Joseph made Martius and Spix Knights of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown. Aged 26 Martius was elected a full member of the Royal Bavarian Acad‐ emy of Sciences. At age 31 in 1826 Ludvig I, King of Bavaria, made Martius full professor at the Uni‐ versity of Landshut. In 1832 he became senior cu‐ rator of the Botanical Institute, and in 1840 he was elected secretary of the Mathematics and Science section of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences, a post which he had until his death in From this background it is perhaps easier to understand how Martius could publish such a magnificent work on his collections from Brazil. Actually he worked on three large book projects simultaneously. One was a general account of the expedition which was published as Reise in Brasil‐ ien in den Jahren 1817–1820 and published 1823– 1831. The other was Nova genera et species plan‐ tarum quas in itinere per Brasilian annis 1817– 1820 ‐‐‐ suscepto colegit et descripsit, published 1823–1826, which was a technical description of all the plants – except palms – that Martius had collected during his travels. Finally the third book project that Martius embarked on during his ten‐ ure at the Bavaria academic establishment was Historia naturalis palmarum, the illustrations of which are featured in the book reviewed here. The finished version of Historia naturalis palmarum was made up of three volumes. But the volumes did not appear chronologically. Instead they were released in fascicles at irregular inter‐ vals. The first fascicles to appear in 1823 were from volume 2 on the American palms, and this volume was completed in 1837. This was followed by volume 3 which was completed in 1853. Vol‐ ume 1 began to appear in 1831 and was com‐ pleted in 1853. The publication was printed at the author’s expense, and to finance that, Martius had secured that it could be sold through subscription. Those who subscribed appear on a page in the 2nd volume and include several central European royalties, and some of the famous cultural leaders © 2011 the authors; journal compilation © 2011 The International Biogeography Society — frontiers of biogeography 3.2, 2011

Testing the Water–Energy Theory on American Palms (Arecaceae) Using Geographically Weighted Regression

Water and energy have emerged as the best contemporary environmental correlates of broad-scale species richness patterns. A corollary hypothesis of water–energy dynamics theory is that the influence of water decreases and the influence of energy increases with absolute latitude. We report the first use of geographically weighted regression for testing this hypothesis on a continuous species richness gradient that is entirely located within the tropics and subtropics. The dataset was divided into northern and southern hemispheric portions to test whether predictor shifts are more pronounced in the less oceanic northern hemisphere. American palms (Arecaceae, n = 547 spp.), whose species richness and distributions are known to respond strongly to water and energy, were used as a model group. The ability of water and energy to explain palm species richness was quantified locally at different spatial scales and regressed on latitude. Clear latitudinal trends in agreement with water–energy dynamics theory were found, but the results did not differ qualitatively between hemispheres. Strong inherent spatial autocorrelation in local modeling results and collinearity of water and energy variables were identified as important methodological challenges. We overcame these problems by using simultaneous autoregressive models and variation partitioning. Our results show that the ability of water and energy to explain species richness changes not only across large climatic gradients spanning tropical to temperate or arctic zones but also within megathermal climates, at least for strictly tropical taxa such as palms. This finding suggests that the predictor shifts are related to gradual latitudinal changes in ambient energy (related to solar flux input) rather than to abrupt transitions at specific latitudes, such as the occurrence of frost.

Species Diversity and Growth Forms in Tropical American Palm Communities

To advance our understanding of the processes that govern the assembly of palm communities and the local coexistence of numerous palm species, we here synthesize available information in the literature on species diversity and growth-form composition in palm communities across the Americas. American palm communities surveyed had 4–48 (median 16) species in study plots covering 0.09–7.2 ha. Climate, soils, hydrology, and topography are the main factors determining palm community species richness. Tropical lowland terra firme rain forests are the most species-rich whereas forests that are inundated or grow on sandy soils or in areas with seasonal climate have much fewer species. Palm communities in the central-western Amazon and in Central America are significantly richer than the average region and those in the Caribbean significantly poorer in species. As for branching, the 789 species of tropical American palms belong to Corner’s model (solitary, 268 species, 33%), Tomlinsons model (cespitose, 521 species, 66%) and Schoute’s model (dichotomous branching, three species, <1%). We assigned the species to eight different growth forms: (i) Large tall-stemmed Palms (102 spp), (ii) Large-leaved medium–short-stemmed Palms (31 spp), (iii) Medium-sized Palms (95 spp), (iv) Medium/Small Palms with Stout Stem (42 spp), (v) Small Palms (423 spp), (vi) Large acaulescent Palms (28 spp), (vii) Small acaulescent Palms (56 spp), and (viii) Climbing Palms (12 spp). The eight growth forms are differently represented in the palm communities, and the categories Small Palms and Large tall-stemmed Palms dominate the communities both in terms of species richness and in number of individuals.

American palm ethnomedicine: A meta-analysis

BackgroundMany recent papers have documented the phytochemical and pharmacological bases for the use of palms (Arecaceae) in ethnomedicine. Early publications were based almost entirely on interviews that solicited local knowledge. More recently, ethnobotanically guided searches for new medicinal plants have proven more successful than random sampling for identifying plants that contain biodynamic ingredients. However, limited laboratory time and the high cost of clinical trials make it difficult to test all potential medicinal plants in the search for new drug candidates. The purpose of this study was to summarize and analyze previous studies on the medicinal uses of American palms in order to narrow down the search for new palm-derived medicines.MethodsRelevant literature was surveyed and data was extracted and organized into medicinal use categories. We focused on more recent literature than that considered in a review published 25 years ago. We included phytochemical and pharmacological research that explored the importance of American palms in ethnomedicine.ResultsOf 730 species of American palms, we found evidence that 106 species had known medicinal uses, ranging from treatments for diabetes and leishmaniasis to prostatic hyperplasia. Thus, the number of American palm species with known uses had increased from 48 to 106 over the last quarter of a century. Furthermore, the pharmacological bases for many of the effects are now understood.ConclusionsPalms are important in American ethnomedicine. Some, like Serenoa repens and Roystonea regia, are the sources of drugs that have been approved for medicinal uses. In contrast, recent ethnopharmacological studies suggested that many of the reported uses of several other palms do not appear to have a strong physiological basis. This study has provided a useful assessment of the ethnobotanical and pharmacological data available on palms.

American palms used for medicine, in the ethnobotanical and pharmacological publications

The center of diversity of palms (Arecaceae) in tropical America is found in the Amazon basin and along the Panamanian isthmus.The greatest palm species richness has been reported for the Iquitos and Chocó areas. Many species of palms are used mainly for construction and due to their edible fruits. In addition, there are 104 palm species that are used for medicinal purposes in many regions of the Americas. Cocos nuciferaand Oenocarpus batauaare the most commonly used species for medicinal purposes. The fruit is the most commonly used part of palms for medicinal purposes (57 species). The traditional and medicinal use of plants has deep roots in indigenous communities of Latin America. The significance of ethnomedicine for health care of local populations can not be ignored anymore because it plays a significant role in basic health care in developing countries. Interdisciplinary research in antropology, ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology helps gather information on ethnomedicine and design new drugs for modern medicine. American palms are sources of useful bioactive compounds against diabetes, prostate hyperplasia and leishmaniasis.

Las palmeras de América del Sur: diversidad, distribución e historia evolutiva

Este artículo presenta un inventario de la flora de palmeras autóctonas de Suramérica, conformada por 457 especies y 50 géneros. Se analiza la distribución de este grupo vegetal en siete entidades fitogeográficas y se discuten los principales factores que influyen sobre la evolución de las palmeras en América del Sur.

To what extent does Tobler's 1st law of geography apply to macroecology? A case study using American palms (Arecaceae)

BackgroundTobler's first law of geography, 'Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things' also applies to biological systems as illustrated by a general and strong occurrence of geographic distance decay in ecological community similarity. Using American palms (Arecaceae) as an example, we assess the extent to which Tobler's first law applies to species richness and species composition, two fundamental aspects of ecological community structure. To shed light on the mechanisms driving distance decays in community structure, we also quantify the relative contribution of geographic distance per se and environmental changes as drivers of spatial turnover in species richness and composition.ResultsAcross the Americas, similarity in species composition followed a negative exponential decay curve, while similarity in species richness exhibited a parabolic relationship with geographic distance. Within the four subregions geographic distance decays were observed in both species composition and richness, though the decays were less regular for species richness than for species composition. Similarity in species composition showed a faster, more consistent decay with distance than similarity in species richness, both across the Americas and within the subregions. At both spatial extents, geographic distance decay in species richness depended more on environmental distance than on geographic distance, while the opposite was true for species composition. The environmentally complex or geographically fragmented subregions exhibited stronger distance decays than the more homogenous subregions.ConclusionSimilarity in species composition exhibited a strong geographic distance decay, in agreement with Tobler's first law of geography. In contrast, similarity in species richness did not exhibit a consistent distance decay, especially not at distances >4000 kilometers. Therefore, the degree to which Tobler's first law of geography applies to community structure depends on which aspect hereof is considered – species composition or species richness. Environmentally complex or geographically fragmented regions exhibited the strongest distance decays. We conclude that Tobler's law may be most applicable when dispersal is a strong determinant of spatial turnover and less so when environmental control predominates.

Medicinal uses of South American palms

Palms are the most versatile group of plants used by man, providing all of the basic necessities (food, shelter, fuel and fiber) as well as many ameliorants (spices, oils, waxes, gums, poisons and medicines). The importance of palms in the pharmacopoeias of South American Indians has received little attention. This paper presents the results of a literature search on the medicinal uses of South American palms and suggests that phytochemical screening of these species might result in the identification of new and useful biodynamic compounds.

Two New American Palms

Two New American Palms

American Palms Illustrated

American Palms Illustrated

OFFSHOOTS ON THE FLORIDA SILVER PALM

Journal Article OFFSHOOTS ON THE FLORIDA SILVER PALM: Reproductive Habit of Florida Species Unique Among North American Palms—of Possible Evolutionary Interest Get access JOHN T. PRESLEY JOHN T. PRESLEY U. S. Department of Agriculture Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Journal of Heredity, Volume 25, Issue 12, December 1934, Pages 485–488, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a103867 Published: 01 December 1934

Some new oil-seeds derived from American palms

Some new oil-seeds derived from American palms