Abstract
Castela Turpin is composed of 16 known species and is found throughout edaphically dry zones across the American continents from the Sonoran Desert to the southern South American Chaco biogeographic region and Caribbean seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF). Castela is most diverse in the SDTF of the Greater Antilles, with seven of the 16 known species occurring there. We reconstructed the phylogeny of Castela sampling 15 of the 16 known species using a novel plastome dataset. Our phylogeny was used to test the biogeographic history and evolution of morphological characters across the clade. Castela was composed of four major subclades: the Holacantha, Depressa, Caribbean, and Chaco clades. Castela most likely originated in the Mojave/Sonoran Desert/Baja California region and then moved into the Chihuahuan Desert, Chaco, Greater and Lesser Antilles and northern South America, suggesting multiple long-distance dispersal events. Taxa occurring in arid areas, such as the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts and parts of the Caribbean SDTF, have a tendency to quickly lose or drastically reduce the size of their leaves, and most photosynthesis appears to be taken over by photosynthetic stems. The Holacantha clade exhibits the plesiomorphic yellow-green flowers so common in much of the rest of the family, while Castela s.s. mostly has derived red/rose-colored flowers. The putative Miocene origin of Castela and subsequent diversification is likely tied to the expansion of arid lands in the Americas; however, speciation within those clades may have been driven by peripheral isolate speciation and vicariance through habitat fragmentation resulting from more recent climatic change.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank El Ministerio del Medio Ambiente for collecting permits in the Dominican Republic. Teodoro Clase (JBSD), Y. Encarnación (FLAS), W. Testo, and M. Bonifacino aided with fieldwork. This work was supported in part from start-up funds to L.C. Majure from the Florida Museum of Natural History and University of Florida, the National Science Foundation (GSS-1461496 to J. Franklin), and the Florida Museum of Natural History Biodiversity Fund to D. Steadman. We thank the following herbaria and their staff for specimen loans used for this work: ASU (E. Makings), NY (M. Pace), SRSU (A.M. Powell), US (M. Toner). J.R. Pirani and another anonymous reviewer provided helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.
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LCM designed the study, acquired material for analysis, carried out laboratory work and data analysis, and wrote the paper. AB and AG carried out laboratory work, helped with analyses, and helped write the paper. AN helped write the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Appendix 1
Appendix 1
Accessions used in our plastome dataset analyses with associated collector name and numbers, herbarium repositories (acronyms follow Thiers 2017 +), and their GenBank accession numbers. Accession numbers for data downloaded from GenBank are given in parentheses after the taxon name.
Simaroubaceae — Ailanthus altissimus (MG799542), Castela calcicola Morton 10,242 (US; SAMN17814252), Castela calcicola Acevedo 6521 (US; SAMN17814251), Castela coccinea Krapovikas 44,166 (ASU; SAMN20491061), Castela coccinea Piesko 8 (ASU; SAMN17814253), Castela depressa Jímenez 453 (US; SAMN17814254), Castela emoryi Baker 20,325 (FLAS; SAMN20491062), Castela emoryi Majure 5932 (DES, FLAS; SAMN17814255), Castela erecta Arnoldo 1638 (US; SAMN20491063), Castela erecta Acevedo 5315 (US; SAMN17814256), Castela galapageia Bowman s.n. (US; SAMN20491064), Castela jaquiniifolia Clemente 4301 (US; SAMN20491065), Castela macrophylla Britton 1843 (US; SAMN17814257), Castela peninsularis Rebman 2793 (ASU; SAMN20491066), Castela peninsularis Wiggins 16,151 (US; SAMN20491067), Castela polyandra Moran 11,895 (US; SAMN20491068), Castela polyandra Pinkava 14,228 (ASU; SAMN20491069), Castela sp. nov. Leonard 13,218 (US; SAMN17814258), Castela sp. nov. Majure 6629 (FLAS; SAMN17814259), Castela spinosa Roig 3931 (NY; SAMN20491071), Castela spinosa León 7219 (US; SAMN20491070), Castela stewartii Powell 6350 (SRSU; SAMN20491074), Castela stewartii Warnock 18,723 (SRSU; SAMN20491075), Castela stewartii Fenstermacher 1900 (SRSU; SAMN20491072), Castela stewartii Johnston 11,391 (ASU; SAMN20491073), Castela texana Saunders 1068 (US; SAMN20491076), Castela tweediei Pedersen 5125 (ASU; SAMN17814260), Castela tweediei DelPuerto 5372 (US; SAMN20491078), Castela tweediei Bonifacino 6956 (FLAS; SAMN20491077), Castela tweediei Hatschbach 72,435 (ASU; SAMN20491080), Castela tweediei Hatschbach 19,288 (NY; SAMN20491079), Eurycoma longifolia (MH751519), Leitneria floridana Judd 7022 (FLAS; SAMN17814261), Picrasma crenata Jardim 2795 (NY; SAMN20491081), Picrasma excelsa Trejo-Torres 2311 (FLAS; SAMN17814262), Picrasma mexicana Acevedo 375 (NY; SAMN20491082), Picrasma nanophylla Majure 6473 (FLAS; SAMN17814263), Picrasma nanophylla Clase 8980 (FLAS; SAMN20491083), Picrasma selleana Judd 4400 (FLAS; SAMN17814264), Picrasma tetramera Roig 16,788 (FLAS; SAMN20491084), Simarouba berteroana Majure 7811 (FLAS; SAMN20491085), Simarouba glauca Morris 4013 (FLAS; SAMN17814265). Rutaceae — Tetradium glabrifolium Tang 611 (FLAS; SAMN20520266), Zanthoxylum azuense Clase 8505 (JBSD; SAMN20520269), Zanthoxylum americanum Godfrey 79,818 (FLAS; SAMN20520268), Zanthoxylum alatum Péng 2803 (FLAS; SAMN20520267), Zanthoxylum flavum Majure 6280 (FLAS; SAMN17814268). Meliaceae — Azadirachta indica (NC023792), Melia azedarach (NC050650), Swietenia macrophylla (MH348156), Swietenia mahogani Majure 7108 (FLAS; SAMN17814266). Sapindaceae — Aesculus chinensis (MK648235), Koelreuteria paniculata (KY859413), Litchi chinensis (NC035238), Thouinia trifoliata Majure 6596 (FLAS, JBSD; SAMN17814267). Burseraceae — Commiphora foliacea (NC041103), Commiphora gileadensis (NC041104). Anacardiaceae — Anacardium occidentale (NC035235), Mangifera indica (NC035239), Pistacia chinensis (NC046786), Rhus potaninii (MT230556), Spondias mombin (NC035973).
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Majure, L.C., Blankenship, A., Grinage, A. et al. Castela (Simaroubaceae), an impressive New World radiation of thorny shrubs destined for edaphically dry habitats. Braz. J. Bot 45, 237–249 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40415-021-00742-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40415-021-00742-8