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15.01.2021 09:00
Bayreuth botanists research the unique flora of New Caledonia
Researchers at the University of Bayreuth in New Caledonia have discovered seven new species of the dog poison family (Apocynaceae). In the spring of 2019, following in the footsteps of the British explorer James Cook, they examined the flora on the archipelago in the Southwest Pacific and have now published the results of their long-term studies in the 27th volume of the “Flore de la Nouvelle-Calédonie” of the Paris Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle.
The Bayreuth first authors Prof. Dr. Sigrid Liede-Schumann and PD Dr. Ulrich Meve summarized their studies on the New Caledonian Apocynaceae (dog poison plants) and presented twelve original genera and 29 species with extensive descriptions and identification keys, photo tables and distribution maps as well as classifications in terms of red list categories. In the course of this work, they recognized seven species as new and described them for the first time. Two other species are believed to be extinct and three more are critically endangered. Above all the intensive nickel mining, but also the uncontrolled reproduction of introduced mane deer and wild boar threaten the unique vegetation. Accompanying molecular biological studies have shown that most of the native species only immigrated with one species from Australia or the surrounding islands. The species-richest genus Leichhardtia (19 species) has colonized New Caledonia independently of each other twice from Australia.
Literally in the footsteps of Cook and the two German biologists on board the “Resolution”, Georg Forster and his father Johann Reinhold Forster, Liede-Schumann and Meve walked in April 2019, 245 years after the famous discoverers. Together with the French-New Caledonian cooperation partner and first author of this study, Dr. Gildas Gateblé (IRD, Nouméa), as well as with the support of the New Caledonian nature conservation authorities, it became possible to enter one of the “original locations” of that time and to analyze floristically. The return visit to a small coral island off the southern tip of the main island, which Cook spontaneously called “Botany Isle” due to its abundance of plants, was perhaps a unique opportunity to examine an exact area for its floristic changes over this almost quarter of a millennium – made possible thanks to diverse Collections and notes from Georg Forster, who introduced the relevant standards before Alexander von Humboldt. The Bayreuth researchers compared herbarium specimens and text and image sources. The New Caledonian-Bavarian research group was able to determine many floristic (and faunistic) matches with the information documented in 1774, but of course also changes. With the apparent decrease in the population of the endemic Araucaria columnaris trees, new species found a habitat – mostly species from the region and only a few neophytes (introduced, originally non-native plants).
In addition, it was finally possible to clarify which of the three islands in the vicinity of Captain Cook’s anchorage was actually involved. The re-analysis of previously misinterpreted nautical information in his logbook showed that today’s Ile Améré is undoubtedly Cook’s “Botany Isle”, i.e. the island that was set on at that time.
Background:
New Caledonia, an archipelago belonging to France in the southwestern Pacific, was only discovered and named by Captain James Cook on his second voyage in 1774. A unique and extremely species-rich flora with approx. 3500 native species developed on the soils, which are often rich in heavy metals, of which 80% only occur there (endemics). The archipelago has achieved fame as the home of the only known parasitic conifer Parasitaxus usta and the original flowering plant Amborella trichopoda still alive today.
Scientific contact:
Prof. Dr. Sigrid Liede-Schumann & PD Dr. Ulrich Meve
Chair for Plant Systematics:
University of Bayreuth
Tel.: +49 (0) 921-55 2460
Email: [email protected] and [email protected]
Originalpublikation:
GÂTEBLÉ, G., LANNUZEL, G., LIEDE-SCHUMANN, S. & U. MEVE (2020). The flora of James Cook’s ‘Botany Isle’ (Îlot Améré) and the neighbouring islets of Kié and Nouaré (New Caledonia): revisited and re-evaluated after nearly 250 years. Muelleria 39: 39-57.
LIEDE-SCHUMANN, S., MEVE, U., GÂTEBLÉ, G. (2020). Apocynaceae pro parte (pp. 10-233). In LIEDE-SCHUMANN, S., MEVE, U., GÂTEBLÉ, G., BARRIERA, G. & FICI, S .: Flore de la Nouvelle Caledonie, Vol 27: Apocynaceae pp, Phellinaceae, Capparaceae. National Museum of Natural History (Paris) & IRD Editions (Marseille), 335 pp.
Further information:
https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/documents/Muelleria-vol-39-_Gateble-et-al-39-57.pdf
https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/fr/collections/faune-et-flore-tropicales/flore-de-l…
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