Alan W Meerow

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Adjunct Professor at Arizona State University (ASU) and Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC)

We report for the first time in Ecuador the small plant genus Pyrolirion Herb. (Amaryllidaceae). We identify several Ecuadorian populations of Pyrolirion tubiflorum (L’Hér.) M. Roem. located in four provinces along the Ecuadorian Andes. This species has been previously recorded in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. An updated description of P. tubiflorum is...

Background Andean orography has shaped the endemism of plant species in montane forests, creating a mosaic of habitats in small and isolated areas. Understanding these endemic species' genetic diversity patterns is crucial for their conservation. Phaedranassa cinerea (Amaryllidaceae), a species restricted to the western Andes of Ecuador, is listed...

Arsenic-based agro-chemicals have contaminated considerable acreage on turf-farms, orchards, and around horticultural production structures. A study was undertaken to evaluate iris (Iris savannarum), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), Tithonia rotundiflora, Coreopsis lanceolata, sunflower (Helianthus annuus), and marigold (Tagetes erecta) for their po...

Arsenic-based pesticides, herbicides and insecticides are used in horticultural operations resulting in soil contamination around greenhouse structures. Phytoremediation and phytostabilization are two techniques for treating arsenic (As) contaminated soil. Several ornamental plant species, Iris (Iris savannarum), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), Tit...

Pierfelice Ravenna was a controversial Chilean botanist active from the late 1960s through the first decade of the 21st century. He died in 2022. During his active years he described ca. 650 species and infraspecific taxa of plants, mostly in Amaryllidaceae and Iridaceae. Unfortunately, the fate of his type specimens, a majority of which were locat...

We utilized 10 microsatellite loci to examine the genetic diversity, genetic structure, and demographic history of Zamia decumbens Calonje, Meerman, M.P. Griff. & Hoese, an endangered cycad species occurring in small populations on karst topography within the Maya Mountains of Belize. Four populations in two distinct habitats were sampled: three in...

Background Andean orogeny has shaped the endemism of plant species in montane forests, creating a mosaic of habitats in small and isolated areas. Understanding these endemic species' genetic diversity patterns is crucial for their conservation. Phaedranassa cinerea (Amaryllidaceae), a species restricted to the western Andes of Ecuador, is listed as...

The classification and phylogenetic history of the Amaryllidaceae is reviewed since the dawn of molecular systematics in the 1990’s. The family is now recognized as comprising three subfamilies: Agapanthoideae, Allioideae, and Amaryllidoideae, of which the latter is the largest. The family likely had a Gondwanaland origin in what is now Africa. Aga...

The genus Clinanthus Herb. is found in the Andes Region (South America), mainly in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. These plants belong to the Amaryllidaceae family, specifically the Amaryllidoideae subfamily, which presents an exclusive group of alkaloids known as Amaryllidaceae alkaloids that show important structural diversity and pharmacological pro...

Background and aims – The Atlantic Forest is among the five most important biodiversity hotspots in the world, harbouring one of the highest levels of endemism and species richness in the tropics. The region has been suggested as a centre of diversity for the genus Hippeastrum, which comprises about one hundred species distributed throughout the Ne...

Disturbance changes the availability of resources over time. Ceratozamia fuscoviridis W. Bull, an endangered endemic Mexican cycad, has intrinsic characteristics that increase its susceptibility to environmental changes. Therefore, the aim of this work was to evaluate the efect of human disturbance on C. fuscoviridis populations. Four sites were mo...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2020.582422.].

Plant biodiversity is an important source of compounds with medicinal properties. The alkaloid galanthamine, first isolated from Galanthus woronowii (Amaryllidaceae), is approved by the FDA for the palliative treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease due to its acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity. Obtaining this active pharmaceu...

Serra da Mantiqueira is the most important mountain range in eastern South America, known for its high levels of species richness and endemism. A new species of Amaryllidaceae endemic to the region was recently identified, described and illustrated herein. It can be recognized by its rupicolous habit, large bulbs, reaching 12 cm in diameter, annual...

Zamia decumbens Calonje, Meerman, M.P.Griff. & Hoese, a threatened cycad species from Belize, is showcased and illustrated based on field observations as well as plants cultivated in the ex situ conservation living collections of Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) in Coral Gables, Florida. This once obscure species was described in 2009, studied in...

In 2015, Brazil faced the worst environmental disaster in its history, when the collapse of an iron ore dam dumped millions of tons of tailings into the Doce River. In this paper, we describe two Hippeastrum species native to localities directly involved in the tragedy. The dam was located in the foothills of Serra do Caraça, a mountain range in th...

Zamia furfuracea is a cycad endemic to coastal habitats of southeast Mexico and of high ecological and horticultural importance. It is threatened with extinction due to the declining population size, caused mainly by livestock raising, urban development, and poor environmental management. This work aimed to determine the genetic diversity and struc...

The shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiver-sity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxo-nomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impedi...

The shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiver-sity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxo-nomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impedi...

The urge to organise the world around us is an essential part of human nature. Naming and categorising enable us to store and access information ef ciently. The need to name and categorise extends to the natural world and, in particular, to living organisms. The science underpinning this area of knowledge is called Taxonomy, and is as old as humani...

Premise of research. Ex situ plant conservation can be improved through genetic analysis. One area of interest is the relative value of conserving smaller or larger populations, and how sampling strategies for these might differ. Current practice emphasizes collecting large sample sizes from some populations and limited sampling from others, and ai...

Clinanthus fabianae and C. thiagoi are described from Ancash and La Libertad departments of Peru. Both species have similar perigone coloration, broadly lobed staminal coronas, and incurved free filaments. They may represent a distinct species group, along with the previously described C. inflatus. The species can be separated by number of flowers,...

One of the two major clades of the endemic American Amaryllidaceae subfam. Amaryllidoideae constitutes the tetraploid-derived (n = 23) Andean-centered tribes, most of which have 46 chromosomes. Despite progress in resolving phylogenetic relationships of the group with plastid and nrDNA, certain subclades were poorly resolved or weakly supported in...

1. Error in Figure An error on our paper [1] came to our attention. The reason for the correction is a mistake in Figure 1. The names of the species were switched between P. schizantha and P. dubia. The correct new Figure 1 is shown below: The above error did not change the results and conclusions of our paper. However, the authors would like to ap...

The species of Acrocomia are popularly known as Macaw palm due to their importance as a food source for Anodorhynchus (Psittacidae). They are monoecious, with a mixed reproductive system, and high ecological and economic importance. There is controversy regarding the taxonomic status of Acrocomia aculeata and Acrocomia totai as different species; t...

Effectively conserving biodiversity with limited resources requires scientifically informed and efficient strategies. Guidance is particularly needed on how many living plants are necessary to conserve a threshold level of genetic diversity in ex situ collections. We investigated this question for 11 taxa across five genera. In this first study ana...

Clinanthus longissimus B. Esquerre & Meerow sp. nov. is described from the Department of Cajamarca in northwest Peru. This new species has affinity with C. coccineus (Ruiz. & Pav.) Meerow, C. incarnatus (Kunth) Meerow and C. variegatus (Ruiz & Pav.) Meerow, from which it can be distinguished mainly by the length of the flower, the continuous floral...

Clinanthus inflatus (Amaryllidaceae) and Ismene parviflora are described from Ancash Department in Peru. The flower of C. inflatus is urceolate, and resembles that of Urceolina (Amaryllidaceae tr. Eucharideae), a unique morphology for the genus. Ismene parviflora, with its small, loosely formed, narrowly funnelform-tubular perigone with a ventricos...

A new species of Paramongaia, P. multiflora, and of Rauhia, R. albescens, are described from Peru. We also present an updated parsimony analysis of aligned ITS sequences across the tetraploid Andean clade of Amaryllidaceae subfam. Amaryllidoideae that places both the new species and the only other species known of Paramongaia into a clade within th...

A robust generic classification for Amaryllidaceae has remained elusive mainly due to the lack of unequivocal diagnostic characters, a consequence of highly canalized variation and a deeply reticulated evolutionary history. A consensus classification is proposed here, based on recent molecular phylogenetic studies, morphological and cytogenetic var...

Species modify their morphological attributes in response to environmental variation as an adaptive strategy, a situation aggravated by current conditions of rapid alteration of global ecosystems. Altitudinal gradients represent an ideal source of environmental variation to evaluate such adaptations. Along these gradients, generalist species are th...

Species modify their morphological attributes in response to environmental variation as an adaptive strategy, a situation aggravated by current conditions of rapid alteration of global ecosystems. Altitudinal gradients repre- sent an ideal source of environmental variation to evaluate such adaptations. Along these gradients, generalist species are...

A new species of Hippeastrum Herb. (Amaryllidaceae) from the department of Amazonas, Peru, is described and illustrated here. Hippeastrum peruvianum Meerow & Campos-Rocha features floral morphology unique among the other species of the genus occurring in the country. It has similarities with H. miniatum (Ruiz & Pav.) Herb. and H. reginae (L.) Herb....

In the context of the revision of Amaryllidaceae tribe Griffinieae that we are preparing, we describe and illustrate a new species, Griffinia albolineata, known from a single fragment of the Atlantic Forest in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais. It is distinguished by the foliar blade with a whitish longitudinal stripe and long-acuminate apex, uni...

Premise of research. The genus Zamia L. (Zamiaceae), consisting of 79 species, is the most species-rich and widely distributed cycad genus in the New World and arguably the most morphologically and ecologically diverse genus in the Cycadales. However, a strong phylogenetic framework for this genus is still lacking. Methodology. We used a multilocus...

Griffinia alba was described in 2000 from a collection made in the 1930s, which remained the only known material of the species until recently. In 2014, two new records of the species from one of the most deforested regions of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest were discovered. This discovery revealed that the original description of G. alba was partial...

A new saxicolous species of Amaryllidaceae tentatively assigned to the tribe Clinantheae, Pamiantheecollis Silverst., Meerow & Sánchez-Taborda, is described from the western slope of the Cordillera Occidental in the department of Cauca, Colombia. The new species differs from the two hitherto known species of Pamianthe in its yellow flowers and in i...

Species distribution models (SDMs) are popular tools for predicting the geographic ranges of species. It is common practice to use georeferenced records obtained from online databases to generate these models. Using three species of Phaedranassa (Amaryllidaceae) from the Northern Andes, we compare the geographic ranges as predicted by SDMs based on...

Microhabitat variations condition the ability of plant populations to colonize and recruit. Normally cacti species need nurse conditions for establishment of seedlings, resulting in patches under forest cover and increasing the contrasting conditions between slopes with different solar exposure and humidity percentage. We hypothesize that Cephaloce...

The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) was established by the Conference of Parties in 2002 to decrease the loss of plant diversity, reduce poverty and contribute to sustainable development. To achieve this overarching goal, the GSPC has established a series of targets, one of which is to ensure that plant diversity is well understood, s...

Premise of research. After Cuba, the three largest islands of the Greater Antilles are Hispaniola, Jamaica (JAM), and Puerto Rico (PR), all of which are inhabited by the Zamia pumila complex, a monophyletic group of dioecious gymnosperms treated as a single polymorphic or as many as nine species. We sought to test the following hypotheses for Zamia...

Monographic work on the genus Hippeastrum in Brazil has revealed two new species endemic to the Cerrado biome, here described and illustrated. Hippeastrum lunaris is a species restricted to the region of Chapada dos Veadeiros; H. mauroi is so far found only in Chapada dos Guimarães. Detailed descriptions, illustrations and taxonomic comments on the...

With 30 threatened species (14 categorized as Critically Endangered and 16 as Endangered, sensu IUCN), Coccothrinax (c. 54 species) is the flagship palm genus for conservation in the Caribbean Island Biodiversity Hotspot. Coccothrinax has its centre of taxonomic diversity in these islands, with c. 51 endemic species. We present a conservation frame...

The genus Acrocomia, popularly known as macaw palm or macaúba, occurs in savanna areas and open forests of tropical America, with distribution from Central to southern South America. They are important oleaginous palm trees, due to their role in ecosystems and local economies and their potential for biofuel production and vegetable oil. Although th...

We report the analysis of floral fragrance volatiles from two scented amaryllis species, Hippeastrum brasilianum and Hippeastrum parodii. Whereas the headspace of H. brasilianum is dominated by a large peak of (Z)-β-ocimene (88% of total peak area), H. parodii has two large peaks comprising 78%, identified as eucalyptol (1,8-cineole, 30%) and (Z)-β...

Griffinia capixabae, a new species of Amaryllidaceae restricted to the mountainous region of the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, and classified as endangered, is described and illustrated herein. It is morphologically similar to G. intermedia, but can be distinguished by its completely free spathe bracts, smaller overall perigone length, longer hy...

Conservation of imperiled plant species often requires ex situ (offsite) living collections. Protocols for developing these collections most often emphasize sampling depth, but little is known about the genetics of such collections. This study compares how well a single collecting protocol can capture the diversity in wild populations of two closel...

Zamia inermis, a narrowly endemic cycad, has been classified under the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List as critically endangered on the basis of a 75% population decline over past 50 yr. There is only one known population occupying an area of less than 10 km 2 , with 654 individuals with extremely low seed production and recr...

Iris series Hexagonae is a small, monophyletic complex of five species and associated hybrid populations, popularly known as the ‘Louisiana irises’. Series Hexagonae has been recognized as a textbook case of introgressive hybridization based on numerous studies in Louisiana. We previously explored patterns of genetic structure and diversity in popu...

Eithea lagopaivae Campos-Rocha & Dutilh, sp. nov. is described as the second species of the formerly monotypic genus Eithea. It is characterized by a one flowered inflorescence, completely hollow scape, white or lightly magenta-striated flower that is enclosed by spathe bracts fused for more than the lower fifth of its length. Comments on its range...

Eithea lagopaivae Campos-Rocha & Dutilh, sp. nov. is described as the second species of the formerly monotypic genus Eithea. It is characterized by a one flowered inflorescence, completely hollow scape, white or lightly magenta-striated flower that is enclosed by spathe bracts fused for more than the lower fifth of its length. Comments on its range...

Premise of the study: The Bahamas archipelago is formed by young, tectonically stable carbonate banks that harbor direct geological evidence of global ice-volume changes. We sought to detect signatures of major changes on gene flow patterns and reconstruct the phylogeographic history of the monophyletic Zamia pumila complex across the Bahamas. Me...

COMPREHENSIVE in scope and based on research from worldwide sources, Ornamental Palm Horticulture presents virtually everything ever published about the subject in a concise, readable format, illustrated with 110 color plates and 81 black-and-white photographs. The first complete treatment of palms, the book covers palm biology, palm propagation,...

Hybridization is a frequent and important force in plant evolution. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods offer new possibilities for clade resolution and ambitious sampling of gene genealogies, yet difficulty remains in detecting deep reticulation events using currently available methods. We reconstructed the phylogeny of diploid representative...

We present a dated phylogenetic tree for the Neotropical genus Attalea (Arecaceae). We used six orthologues from the nuclear WRKY gene family across 98 accessions to address relationships among species and biogeographical hypotheses. We found that the formerly recognized groups within Attalea are not monophyletic and therefore there is no support f...

Phaedranassa schizantha (Amaryllidaceae) is an endangered species endemic to Ecuador and two varieties have been described: P. schizantha var. schizantha and P. schizantha var. ignea. We assessed population genetic structure and demographic patterns in 11 populations across the range of the species using 13 microsatellite loci. Our data show that g...

Clinanthus milagroanthus S. Leiva & Meerow, sp. nov. is described from the Department of La Libertad in Peru. The new species is most closely related to Clinanthus mirabilis (Ravenna) Meerow, with further affinities to Clinanthus viridiflorus (R. & P.) Meerow. It can be distinguished from Clinanthus mirabilis by its wider leaves, the much more brig...

Coccothrinax jimenezii M.M. Mejía & R.G. García is a Critically Endangered palm species restricted to Haiti (one population near the city of Gonaïves with 43 individuals) and the Dominican Republic (one population on the shores of Lago Enriquillo with 18 individuals). The species faces two major conservation challenges: (1) water level rise in the...

Abstract— Previous studies have shown Homalomena as traditionally defined to be polyphyletic, with Neotropical species phylogenetically distinct from Asian species. This study of 29 accessions of 10 Neotropical taxa, and a total of 135 accessions representing 92 taxa of Homalomena, Furtadoa, and Philodendron for nuclear ITS and plastid matK regions...

We present a dated phylogenetic tree for the Neotropical genus Attalea (Arecaceae). We used six orthologues from the nuclear WRKY gene family across 98 accessions to address relationships among species and biogeographical hypotheses. We found that the formerly recognized groups within Attalea are not monophyletic and therefore there is no support f...

Dated molecular phylogenies of broadly distributed lineages can help to compare patterns of diversification in different parts of the world. An explanation for greater Neotropical diversity compared to other parts of the tropics is that it was an accident of the Andean orogeny. Using dated phylogenies, of chloroplast ndhF and nuclear DNA WRKY seque...

A new and distinct tetraploid 2n=44 Hippeastrum interspecific hybrid plant named ‘Miami’ measuring approximately 11-14 cm long, approximately 14-16 cm wide laterally, 16-17.5 cm wide dorsal-ventrally. The flowers are densely striated orange red approximately RHS Orange Red 33A on their inner surfaces, with a sharp white RHS 155C keel.

A new and distinct aneuploid (2n=43) moderately tall Hippeastrum hybrid plant named ‘Orlando’ measuring approximately 13-14.5 cm long, approximately 14-16 cm wide laterally, approximately 17-19 cm wide dorsal-ventrally. The flowers are densely striated pink-purple approximately RHS Red Purple 66A on their upper surfaces, with a broad white RHS 155D...

A new and distinct diploid (2n=22) Hippeastrum interspecific hybrid plant named ‘JAX’ particularly characterized by semi-pendant trumpet-shaped flowers, measuring approximately 15-16 cm long, approximately 12-13.5 cm wide laterally, approximately 4-16 cm wide dorsal-ventrally, and with a unique color pattern of lightly striated amethyst (closest RH...

A new and distinct aneuploid 2n=43 semi-dwarf Hippeastrum hybrid plant named ‘Tampa’ particularly characterized by funnel-shaped flowers, measuring approximately 13-17 cm long, approximately 13-14 cm wide laterally, approximately 16-17 cm wide dorsal-ventrally, the flowers are densely striated purple approximately RHS Red Purple 60A on their inner...

A new and distinct tripolid (2n=33) Hippeastrum interspecific hybrid plant named ‘Boca’ particularly characterized by “butterfly” shape flowers, measuring approximately 13-14 cm and 15-16 cm long, approximately 12-13.5 cm and 14-15 cm wide laterally, approximately 14-16 cm and 16-18 cm wide dorsal-ventrally, The flowers are densely striated purple...

New species of the genera Stenomesson and Eucharis (Amaryllidaceae) are described from Ecuador. Stenomesson ecuadorense is the second species of the genus reported from that country, and the only endemic one. It is related to Stenomesson miniatum and Stenomesson campanulatum, both from Peru, with which it shares orange flower color and the fusion o...

Aim The subduction of the Nazca Plate and the eastward propagation of the Andean orogenic wedge in western Amazonia caused the formation of arches or ridges that have influenced the modern configuration of the upper Amazon drainage and the diversification of biota. We used a lineage of 15 palm species ( Astrocaryum sect. Huicungo , Arecaceae) to te...

Editor: Félix Forest Premise of research. Conservation of plant species often requires ex situ (off-site) cultivation of living collections. Cycads constitute the most imperiled major group of plants, and ex situ collections are an important part of conservation planning for this group, given seed recalcitrance, difficulties with tissue culture, an...

Premise of research. Conservation of plant species often requires ex situ (off-site) cultivation of living collections. Cycads constitute the most imperiled major group of plants, and ex situ collections are an important part of conservation planning for this group, given seed recalcitrance, difficulties with tissue culture, and ongoing in situ thr...

In this paper we formally transfer all four known species of Lytocaryum to the genus Syagrus based on recent molecular analyses that show it as a monophyletic group either nested within Syagrus, making Syagrus paraphyletic or sister to it. Because of these conflicting results between gene and species trees and the imperfect morphological character...

Pseudophoenix ekmanii, P. lediniana and P. vinifera (Arecaceae) are endemic to Hispaniola. The more wide-ranging P. sargentii also occurs on the island. Population genetic diversity and structure of Pseudophoenix was investigated using ten microsatellite loci. The study focused on populations from Hispaniola, but also included samples from other Ca...

The palm species Pseudophoenix ekmanii (endemic to the Dominican Republic) and P. lediniana (endemic to Haiti) are the only Critically Endangered species (sensu IUCN) of the genus. Results are presented of recent field research and population genetic studies targeting P. lediniana. The field research confirmed that wild plants of P. lediniana are r...

Arecaceae tribe Cocoseae is the most economically important tribe of palms, including both coconut and African oil palm. It is mostly represented in the Neotropics, with one and two genera endemic to South Africa and Madagascar, respectively. Using primers for six single copy WRKY gene family loci, we amplified DNA from 96 samples representing all...

The Bahamian archipelago has a rich flora with 89 endemic species. An international symposium held at Nassau in October 2012 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the publication of the "Flora of the Bahama Archipelago" provided a forum to discuss plant conservation issues on these islands. This article builds on conclusions from this symposium and...

Phaedranassa brevifolia was first described from a single specimen collected in 1978 in Northern Ecuador (Meerow 1987) in a habitat classified as Dry Montane Scrub, characterized by thorny dry forest (Valencia et al. 1999). The above-ground parts of this bulbous species consist of only one or two leaves approximately 12 cm in length (Meerow 1990),...

The use of native plants in Florida horticulture has gained importance due to habitat loss, coastal deterioration, and competition from invasive exotics like Brazilian pepper and punk tree. Several counties have enacted ordinances requiring native plants in new developments, increasing demand for native plant materials. While many native trees are...

Abstract— The phylogeny of Amaryllidaceae tribe Hippeastreae was inferred using chloroplast (3′ ycf1, ndhF, trnL (UAA)-F (GAA)) and nuclear (ITS rDNA) sequence data under maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood frameworks. Network analyses were applied to resolve conflicting signals among data sets and putative scenarios of reticulate evolution. A...