Purpose The Cunoniaceae are a major component of the New Caledonian flora with 91 endemic species that are highly unusual in that multiple metals are hyperaccumulated in different species. This makes it an ideal model system for studying the nature of the hyperaccumulation phenomenon. Methods X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) scanning of all herbarium collections of the Cunoniaceae was undertaken at the Herbarium of New Ca...

Aim Alexander von Humboldt observed that plant communities on different continents but under similar climatic conditions shared few common species but often contained representatives of the same genera or higher taxonomic groups. To test if this observation can be extended to substrate type, we explored whether a phylogenetic signature could be seen among floras growing on ultramafic substrates that present challenging edaphic...

Aim The diversity and composition of species pools within oceanic archipelagos is determined by a combination of colonization, abiotic tolerance, in situ diversification, biotic interactions and extinction. The signature of biogeographic events and evolutionary processes, however, may be masked by recent coalescence and hybridization between closely related species. We used the species‐rich plant genus Cyrtandra (Gesneriaceae)...

Amborella trichopoda Baill. (Amborellaceae, Amborellales), the sole living member of the sister group to all other extant angiosperms, is endemic to New Caledonia. We addressed the intraspecific phylogeography of Amborella by investigating whether its present population genetic structure could be related to its current and past habitats. We found moderate range‐wide genetic diversity based on nuclear microsatellite data and de...

We reconstructed the evolutionary history of Codia , a plant genus endemic to the New Caledonia biodiversity hotspot in the southwest Pacific, using three single‐copy nuclear genes. It seems likely that more than half of Codia species have a hybrid origin, but in the absence of cytological information, it is not known whether polyploids occur. Adaptation to ultramafic soils is possibly a plesiomorphic character for the entire...

Orchids are the largest family of flowering plants, encompassing several times as many species as birds or mammals. Because of their diversity, charisma, and threats from overcollection and habitat loss, they are a key group in conservation. Nevertheless, preservation of this group is plagued by taxonomic problems, particularly in Europe, where new taxa are actively being described. We used a checklist of orchids to compare th...