Search

Summary: This study unveils a novel variety of Mucuna macrocarpa, named M. macrocarpa var. oui, discovered in southern Taiwan. This unique variety is characterised by its sparsely appressed-pubescent leaflet abaxial surface, glabrous style, distinguishing it from M. macrocarpa var. macrocarpa. We also designate a lectotype of M. taiwaniana Y.C.Liu & C.H.Ou, and place the species in synonymy under M. membranacea Hayata, based on study of the lectotype and original description. These taxonomic and nomenclatural additions add to our understanding of the genus Mucuna in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phytoreclamation is the intervention of plants to improve degraded soil quality, changing soil biotic and abiotic properties. Many studies have focused on microbial composition and bioactivity, but few explored the changes in phylogenetic assemblages of soil microbiota after phytoreclamation. This study compared microbiomes of bare land to those of planted soils and investigated how the rhizosphere environment affects microbial assemblages from monocot Poa pratensis and eudicot Dianthus plumarius plantings using 16S rRNA metabarcoding. The results showed that the biotic susceptibility of soil to the rhizosphere environment was higher than that of the abiotic. A noticeable change was in some soil physicochemical properties like Na, P, Zn, Cu, C, and sand-to-silt proportion before and after phytoreclamation, but not between the rhizosphere and bulk soil of plantings. Contrastingly, microbial composition and diversity were significantly affected by both turfing and rhizosphere effects and were more susceptible to differences in turfing or not than in planting species. In the turfgrass, the microbiome differences between plants were greater in the rhizosphere than in the surrounding bulk soil, indicating the proximal influence of root exudates. We also found that the main abiotic factors that influenced microbial composition were Na, Zn, NOx, N, and S; as for the phylogenetic assemblages, were by K levels and the increase of silt. Turfgrass decomposes soil aggregates and changes the physicochemical properties, thereby evens the phylogenetic clustering of the soil microbial community. We demonstrated that the deterministic process affects the microbial assemblage and acts as a selective agent of the soil microbiota in fundamental and realized niches. Phytoreclamation may lead to abiotic soil changes that reallocate resources to microbes. This could affect the phylogeny of the microbial assemblages and increase microbial richness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heloniadeae (Melanthiaceae) presents an East Asia–North America disjunct distribution. Different molecular and morphological data nevertheless support the tribe as a monophyletic group. However, their phylogenetic relationships and biogeographic history, together with the character evolution, are not clear. Therefore, we constructed a Bayesian phylogenetic tree for Heloniadeae using cpDNA and inferred the historical biogeography and floral character evolution. The results revealed that Heloniadeae was distributed in high-latitudes of East Asia and North America, originating since 22.2 mya. The East Asia clade migrated into southwest China, and subsequently colonized the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, the Ryukyus, and spread northward to Japan and southern Sakhalin. The evolution of the inflorescence and number of flowers were phylogenetically conserved, associated with the historical biogeography of Heloniadeae. The inflorescences transferred from raceme to sub-umbel, and the number of flowers decreased during the dispersal process, which may be accompanied by changes in the breeding system. Besides, the anthesis period was more affected by the habitat environment than phylogenetic constraints. The flowering temperature of was below 20 °C in most species, except H. kawanoi. Such a low temperature might not be conductive to pollinator activities, but it could be compensated by sustaining seed production with long-lasting flowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]