The oldest fossil record of Bauhinia s.s. (Fabaceae) from the Tibetan Plateau sheds light on its evolutionary and biogeographic implications
Yi GaoAi SongWei‐Yu‐Dong DengLinlin ChenJia LiuWeicheng LiGaurav SrivastavaRobert A. SpicerZhe‐Kun ZhouTao Su
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AbstractBauhinia s.s. is a large genus in the family Fabaceae, but its evolutionary and biogeographical history is still unclear due to the scarcity of fossil records compared to the highly diverse modern species in pantropic regions. Here, we report the earliest fossil record of Bauhinia s.s., namely Bauhinia tibetensis Y. Gao et T. Su sp. nov., based on leaves from the latest Paleocene of the southern Tibetan region. Combined with palaeoecological niche simulations and ancestral state reconstruction, the new fossils suggested a Paleocene origin of Bauhinia s.s. in the Afrotropical realm that subsequently dispersed to the Neotropical and Indomalayan realms. Bauhinia tibetensis belongs to the Asian clade of Bauhinia s.s. that reached the southern Tibetan region from the Afrotropical realm via the Kohistan-Ladakh Island Arc in the early Paleocene. This clade spread to south-eastern China during the Oligocene and entered northern India during the Neogene or earlier. The discovery of the oldest Bauhinia s.s. from what is now the southern Tibetan Plateau updates our understanding of the biogeographical history of this genus and demonstrates that the Kohistan-Ladakh Island Arc is an ancient corridor for floristic interchange between Africa and India.Keywords: Bauhinia s.s.biogeographydiversificationPaleoceneleaf fossilpalaeoecological niche simulations AcknowledgementsWe thank the members of the Paleoecology Research Group from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and colleagues from Kunming Institute of Botany, CAS for fossil collection works. We thank the Institutional Center for Shared Technologies and Facilities of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, CAS for providing imaging equipment and assisting with fossil scans. This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (2022YFF0800800), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition program (2019QZKK0705), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (41988101), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (XDB26000000), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association, CAS (Y2021105), and the Basic Research Project in Yunnan (YNWR-QNBJ-2019-086).Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Supplemental materialSupplemental material for this article can be accessed here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2023.2244495.Associate Editor: Paul KenrickKeywords:
Bauhinia
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Old World
Floristics
Bandyopadhyay, S. & M. K. Pathak (2013). Neotypification of Bauhinia malabarica Roxb. (Fabaceae). Candollea 68: 193–195. In English, English and French abstracts.A neotype is designated for Bauhinia malabarica Roxb. (≡ Piliostigma malabaricum (Roxb.) Benth.) (Fabaceae).
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Extant Bauhinia (Leguminosae) is a genus of 300 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas, widely distributed in pantropical areas, but its diversification history in southeastern Asia, one of its centers of highest diversity, remains unclear. We report new fossils of three Bauhinia species with cuticular preservation from the Paleogene of Puyang Basin, southwestern China. Our finding likely extends the emergence of Bauhinia in Asia to the late Eocene. Together with previously reported fossil records, we show that the diversification of Bauhina in Asia and the phenomenon of a small region harboring multiple Bauhinia species in southwestern China could be traced back to the Paleogene.
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Floristic composition and characteristics of the vascular plants in Baimashan Nature Reserve were studied.A total of 1520 species and varieties of the vascular plants belonging to 716 genera,185 families,was identified in Baimashan Nature Reserve.Dominant families of the flora were Rosaceae, Compositae, Gramineae, Leguminosae and Liliaceae. The distribution elements of Baimashan's flora are complex. They comprise 15 distribution types of China seed-plants.The North-temperate zone type was the majority of genera,followed by Pantropical and East Asia. The floristic analysis also showed that the flora possess some species originated before Quaterary many rare and endanger plants and endemic plants were found.
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This paper aims to provide a fundamental analysis of the Fabaceae Lindl. family in the context of the Aktobe Floristic District (AFD) legume family presented in this region. According to the present findings, the most commonly seen genus of the family Fabaceae in the region is Astragalus, which includes three subgenera with a certain number of sections. Based on the species distribution model, the dominant group is macro-disjunctive species, with plants migrated at a distance of 500–1,000 km. The usability analysis showed that the majority of plants are used as fodder (60.5%), and medicinal plants account for 26.3%.
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Bauhiniapurpurea, commonly known as purple Orchid tree, Camel foot tree, is an exotic tropical tree distributed worldwide in tropical and subtropical zones. It is medicinally important plant, used in several Ayurvedic formulations for various therapeutic uses. Various phytochemical studies show presence of several important bioactive compounds such as flavonoids, phenolic acids, steroids, lectins, statins, tannins, coumarins etc. Its pharmacological actions describe antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, cerebro-protective, anti-inflammatory, antiarthritic, analgesic, nephroprotective, hepatoprotective, and anticancer properties.
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The pantropical genus Bauhinia, along with the northern temperate Cercis and several tropical genera, bear bilobate, bifoliolate, or sometimes unifoliolate leaves, which constitute the tribe Cercideae as sister to the rest of the family Leguminosae based on molecular phylogenetics. Hence, the fossil record of Cercideae is pivotal to understand the early evolution and biogeographic history of legumes. Three fossil species of Bauhinia were described from the Oligocene Ningming Formation of Guangxi, South China. Bauhinia ningmingensis sp. nov. is characterized by its bifoliolate, pulvinate leaves bearing basal acrodromous primary veins and brochidodromous secondary veins. B. cheniae sp. nov. bears moderately or deeply bilobate, pulvinate leaves, with basal actinodromous primary veins and eucamptodromous secondary veins. B. larsenii D.X. Zhang et Y.F. Chen emend. possesses shallowly or moderately bilobate, pulvinate leaves bearing basal actinodromous primary veins and brochidodromous secondary veins, as well as elliptic, stipitate, non-winged, and oligo-seeded fruits. Meanwhile, previously reported Bauhinia fossils were reviewed, and those pre-Oligocene foliage across the world are either questionable or have been rejected due to lacking of reliable evidence for their pulvini or/and basal actinodromous or acrodromous venations. Besides Oligocene leaves and fruits presented here, foliage and/or wood of Bauhinia have been documented from the Miocene–Pliocene of Thailand, India, Nepal, Uganda, and Ecuador. Bauhinia has exhibited a certain diversity with bifoliolate- and bilobate-leafed species in a low-latitude locality–Ningming since at least the Oligocene, implying that the tropical zone of South China may represent one of the centres for early diversification of the genus. The reliable macrofossils of Bauhinia and Cercis have made their debut in the Eocene–Oligocene floras from mid-low latitudes and appeared to lack in the coeval floras at high latitudes, implying a possible Tethys Seaway origin and spread of legumes. However, detailed scenarios for the historical biogeography of Bauhinia and its relatives still need more robust dataset from palaeobotany and molecular phylogeny in future research.
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Abstract Background Morphological and molecular phylogenetic studies suggest that the pantropical genus Bauhinia L. s.l. (Bauhiniinae, Cercideae, Leguminosae) is paraphyletic and may as well be subdivided into nine genera, including Bauhinia L. s.s. and its allies. Their leaves are usually characteristic bilobate and are thus easily recognized in the fossil record. This provides the opportunity to understand the early evolution, diversification, and biogeographic history of orchid trees from an historical perspective under the framework of morphological and molecular studies. Results The taxonomy, distribution, and leaf architecture of Bauhinia and its allies across the world are summarized in detail, which formed the basis for classifying the bilobate leaf fossils and evaluating the fossil record and biogeography of Bauhinia . Two species of Bauhinia are described from the middle Miocene Fotan Group of Fujian Province, southeastern China. Bauhinia ungulatoides sp. nov. is characterized by shallowly to moderately bilobate, pulvinate leaves with shallowly cordate bases and acute apices on each lobe, as well as paracytic stomatal complexes. Bauhinia fotana F.M.B. Jacques et al. emend. possesses moderately bilobate, pulvinate leaves with moderately to deeply cordate bases and acute or slightly obtuse apices on each lobe. Conclusions Bilobate leaf fossils Bauhinia ungulatoides and B. fotana together with other late Paleogene – early Neogene Chinese record of the genus suggest that Bauhinia had been diverse in South China by the late Paleogene. Their great similarities to some species from South America and South Asia respectively imply that Bauhinia might have undergone extensive dispersals and diversification during or before the Miocene. The fossil record, extant species diversity, as well as molecular phylogenetic analyses demonstrate that the Bauhiniinae might have originated in the Paleogene of low-latitudes along the eastern Tethys Seaway. They dispersed southwards into Africa, migrated from Eurasia to North America via the North Atlantic Land Bridge or floating islands during the Oligocene. Then the genus spread into South America probably via the Isthmus of Panama since the Miocene onward, and underwent regional extinctions in the Boreotropics of mid-high-latitudes during the Neogene climatic cooling. Hence, Bauhinia presently exhibits a pantropical intercontinental disjunct distribution.
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In this study,based on the species distribution information and floristic elements information at large-scale,coupled with the bivariate correlation analysis,we probed into the overall composition of spermatophyte flora components and latitudinal patterns of the spermatophyte flora in Yuanjiang River Basin.The results showed that the study area had a total of 5149 seed plant species,belonging to 241 families,1585 genera.The study area was one of the important distribution centers of some important families and genera in Yunnan,and even in China.At family level,the Pantropical elements(T2) accounted for the largest proportion(45.4%).The secondary was the World distribution elements(T1)(22.4%).At genus level,the most important elements were Tropical Asian elements(T7)(23.2%) and the Pantropical elements(T2)(18%).Both at families and genera level,the tropical elements accounted for around 70% of the total,whereas the temperate elements accounted for about 30%,showing strong characters of tropical flora.It may be related to the geographical and biogeographical locations of the study area.The results also showed that with the increase of latitude,the tropic floristic elements presented a decreasing trend,whereas the temperate elements increased,which may be linked with the environmental gradient on latitudinal gradient.At the same time,it also may be related to the channel effectof Yuanjiang River basin in flora migration process.
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Abstract A new spider mite, Sonotetranychus angiopenis n.sp., collected from Bauhinia sp. (Fabaceae) is described from northwestern São Paulo State, Brazil. This is the first record for this genus in South America.
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