Maria Vorontsova

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew · Herbarium

Grasses (Poaceae) comprise c . 11 800 species and are central to human livelihoods and terrestrial ecosystems. Knowing their relationships and evolutionary history is key to comparative research and crop breeding. Advances in genome‐scale sequencing allow for increased breadth and depth of phylogenomic analyses, making it possible to infer a new re...

The woody bamboos (Bambusoideae) exhibit distinctive biological traits within Poaceae, such as highly lignified culms, rapid shoot growth, monocarpic mass flowering and nutlike or fleshy caryopses. Much of the remarkable morphological diversity across the subfamily exists within a single hexaploid clade, the paleotropical woody bamboos (PWB), makin...

Ctenium has about 20 species distributed in Africa, Arabia, and the Neotropics, with no species occurring on more than one continent. Its relationship with the morphologically similar Kampochloa is still unclear and has not been investigated. In this study, we performed phylogenomic analyses using 71 protein‐coding genes of 24 newly sequenced plast...

Grasses (Poaceae) comprise around 11,800 species and are central for human livelihoods and terrestrial ecosystems. Knowing their relationships and evolutionary history is key to comparative research and crop breeding. Advances in genome-scale sequencing allow for increased breadth and depth of phylogenomic analyses, making it possible to infer a ne...

Angiosperms are the cornerstone of most terrestrial ecosystems and human livelihoods1,2. A robust understanding of angiosperm evolution is required to explain their rise to ecological dominance. So far, the angiosperm tree of life has been determined primarily by means of analyses of the plastid genome3,4. Many studies have drawn on this foundation...

Exotic plant invasions threaten biodiversity and are costly to farmers. Land use is a major pathway promoting the spread of exotic plant species; however, little is known about the processes underlying the success of exotic plants in tropical agricultural landscapes. Focussing on the heterogeneous smallholder landscapes of north‐eastern Madagascar,...

This data includes: 1) Understorey plant communities across 70 plots with their species names, genus, family, and species origin (native, exotic or unknown origin), number of individuals and species cover per plot, assessed using 8 subplots of 4 m² per plot and then pooled on plot level. 2) Plot characteristics (plot code, land-use history, canop...

Societal Impact Statement Plants and agricultural practices are an integral part of human food systems and well‐being. Here, an example of an ethnobotanical research approach is provided to increase our understanding of the relationship between plants and human activities in Madagascar, where the agricultural sector is the local economy basis. This...

Societal Impact Statement Recognizing Loudetia ‐dominated grasslands were widespread prior to human colonization highlights that open ecosystems were and continue to be an important component of Madagascar's biodiversity. A better understanding of the plant species that form grassland ecosystems is necessary for effective land management strategies...

Background and Aims The grass genus Urochloa (Brachiaria) sensu lato includes forage crops that are important for beef and dairy industries in tropical and sub-tropical Africa, South America, and Oceania/Australia. Economically important species include U. brizantha, U. decumbens, U. humidicola, U. mutica, U. arrecta, U. trichopus, U. mosambicensis...

Sub-Saharan Africa is under-represented in global biodiversity datasets, particularly regarding the impact of land use on species’ population abundances. Drawing on recent advances in expert elicitation to ensure data consistency, 200 experts were convened using a modified-Delphi process to estimate ‘intactness scores’: the remaining proportion of...

Societal Impact Statement White fonio ( Digitaria exilis [Kippist] Stapf) is an understudied millet crop, indigenous to West Africa and cultivated in the region largely through traditional practices. This species is climate‐resilient, fast‐growing, nutritionally rich, and provides livelihoods and food security to rural communities. Through collabor...

Societal Impact Statement Madagascar's children are taught that their ancestors destroyed the vast ancient forest, giving rise to modern grasslands, a misleading myth that continues to undermine people's relationship with nature. Replacing this myth with a more nuanced and accurate narrative around grassy ecosystems is fundamental to building a mor...

A discussion on social media led to the formation of a multidisciplinary group working on this project to highlight women’s contributions to science. The role of marginalised groups in science has been a topic of much discussion, but data on these contributions are largely lacking. Our motivation for the development of this dataset was not only to...

Poales are one of the most species‐rich, ecologically and economically important orders of plants and often characterise open habitats, enabled by unique suites of traits. We test six hypotheses regarding the evolution and assembly of Poales in open and closed habitats throughout the world, and examine whether diversification patterns demonstrate p...

What grows where? Knowledge about where to find particular species in nature must have been key to the survival of humans throughout our evolution. Over time, and as people colonised new land masses and habitats, interactions with the local biota led to a wealth of combined traditional and scientific wisdom about the distributions of species and th...

1) Research Aims : Loudetia simplex is a common and dominant species throughout grassland ecosystems in mainland Africa and Madagascar. It is highly polymorphic, often classified as two taxa endemic to Madagascar: L. simplex subsp. stipoides and L. madagascariensis. A better understanding of the inter- and intra-specific variation between these tax...

Poales are one of the most species-rich, ecologically and economically important orders of plants and often characterise open habitats, enabled by unique suites of traits. We test the hypotheses that Poales species are assembled into distinct phyloregions, with centres of high phylogenetic diversity and endemism clustered in tropical regions, and t...

Digitaria is a large pantropical genus, which includes a number of economically problematic agricultural weeds. Difficulties in species identification and the circumscription of the genus have previously hindered progress in understanding its evolution and developing a stable classification. We investigate the evolutionary history of Digitaria by c...

Background and Aims: The grass genus Urochloa (Brachiaria) includes forage crops that are important for beef and dairy industries in tropical and subtropical Africa, South America, and Oceania/Australia. Economically important species include U. brizantha, U. decumbens, U. humidicola, U. mutica, U. arrecta, U. trichopus, U. mosambicensis, and M. ma...

1) Research Aims — The extent of Madagascar’s grasslands prior to human colonization is unresolved. We used population genetic analyses of a broadly dominant C 4 fire-adapted grass, Loudetia simplex , as a proxy for estimating grassland change through time. In the absence of population genomic resources, we used target-enrichment data. We carefully...

The Hickeliinae (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) is an ecologically and economically significant subtribe of tropical bamboos restricted to Madagascar, Comoros, Reunion Island, and a small part of continental Africa (Tanzania). Because these bamboos rarely flower, field identification is challenging, and inferring the evolutionary history of Hickeliinae fro...

Societal Impact Statement Grasses are significant drivers of fires and are the primary food source for cattle in Madagascar's Central Highlands. However, their extent and importance to animals and people in the past remain poorly understood. Clarifying the history of Malagasy grasslands is necessary for building climate resilient food systems and s...

Madagascar's biota is hyperdiverse and includes exceptional levels of endemicity. We review the current state of knowledge on Madagascar's past and current terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by compiling and presenting comprehensive data on species diversity, endemism, and rates of species description and human uses, in addition to presenting...

Madagascar's unique biota is heavily affected by human activity and is under intense threat. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on the conservation status of Madagascar's terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by presenting data and analyses on documented and predicted species-level conservation statuses, the most prevalent and relevan...

Vorontsova, M.S. (2022). Revision of some Malagasy forage grasses and their relatives within Brachiaria, Echinochloa, Moorochloa, and Urochloa. Candollea 77: 199236. In English, English and French abstracts. This work presents a revision of 31 species of Malagasy panicoid grasses (Poaceae subfam. Panicoideae, tribe Paniceae) traditionally placed in...

The grass genus Styppeiochloa De Winter (Arundinoideae: Poaceae) as it occurs in Madagascar is reviewed, two new species are described, and two subspecific taxa are elevated to species status. These new species, as well as the additional collections made since the latest treatment of the genus for Madagascar in 1954, greatly expand the documented g...

Grassy biomes span more than 40% of the global land surface and are central to people, biodiversity and Earth System functioning. There is however limited standardised measurement of herbaceous taxonomic and functional composition in grassy biomes that inhibits the development of a comparative understanding of grassy biomes among geographic regions...

Species of the Heteropogon‐Themeda clade are ecologically important grasses distributed across the tropics, including widespread species, such as the pantropical H. contortus and T. triandra, and range‐restricted species such as H. ritchiei and T. anathera. Here, we examine habitat preferences of the grassland/savanna and wetland species by describ...

Grasses are one of the best documented plant families worldwide in terms of taxonomy, but they are still poorly known in Madagascar. Our understanding of their diversity remains incomplete since grasses and grasslands are assumed by many tobe weeds and degraded wastelands. This project aimed to list thegrasses in Isalo National Park (NP) in order t...

Background and Aims Diploid and polyploid Urochloa (including Brachiaria, Panicum and Megathyrsus species) C4 tropical forage grasses originating from Africa are important for food security and the environment , often being planted in marginal lands worldwide. We aimed to characterize the nature of their genomes, the repetitive DNA, and the genome...

We present a revision of the three species of Tristachya in Madagascar. The tussock-forming T. betsileensis is a rare endemic of the quartz outcrops in the Itremo Protected Area. The rhizomatous T. isalensis and T. humbertii are common components of the sandstone outcrop vegetation in the Isalo National Park. A new combination is made. Descriptions...

Aim To understand the geographical distribution of grasses in sub-Saharan Africa with reference to key plant traits thought to affect range size in this family (Poaceae). Specifically, to test hypotheses on the importance of plant height and lifespan in determining range size and invasion potential in the context of their evolutionary history. Loc...

We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of values of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 448 traits across 28,640 taxa from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual taxon descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of per...

Madagascar is home to a diversity of aquatic grasses. One of these is a rare rice relative, Leersia perrieri (known as Ahitsiriry or Tsingirifiry in the Malagasy language), which is found in a restricted area around the Mahajanga wetlands. A germination test was carried out on two types of local substrate and a control with randomised selected seed...

Themeda and Heteropogon are closely related grass genera frequently dominant in tropical C4 grasslands. Relationships between them are poorly resolved, impeding ecological study, especially of T. triandra with a broad distribution from Africa to East Asia, and H. contortus with a pantropical distribution. Our analyses of plastome and nuclear genome...

To investigate the evolutionary relationships among species of Afrotrichloris, Apochiton, Coelachyrum, Dinebra, Eleusine, Leptochloa, and Schoenefeldia of subtribe Eleusininae a phylogeny based on DNA sequences from nine gene regions (ITS, rps16-trnK, rps3, rps16, rpoC2, rpl32-trnL, ndhF, ndhA, ccsA) is presented. Previous molecular phylogenies ind...

Does traditional generalist herbarium collecting record grass diversity more effectively than plot-based recording common in ecology? We present a checklist of the Poaceae of Mount Kilimanjaro compiled from two datasets: records from 1646 plots of 0.1ha each made since the 1990s, as well as all the specimens held at K and NHT herbaria. We record a...

A new combination is made placing Pennisetum pseudotriticoides in the genus Cenchrus . This species is common and often dominant in the southern part of central Madagascar, associated with inundation and fire, and withstanding high grazing. A description, a detailed plate, a map, and list of known specimens are provided.

Tropical grassy biomes have variable tree cover and are often characterized by a flammable grassy ground layer where the dominating grass species have strategies to persist and proliferate with frequent fire. However, there is limited understanding of how grass growth and flammability traits respond to light availability. We experimentally grew 14...

This data contains: 1) Species by site matrix of herbaceous plant species across the 80 plots with their species names, family, growth form, species origin (endemic, native, exotic or unknown origin) and number of individuals (assessed using 8 subplots of 4 m² per plot) across seven land-use types in north-eastern Madagascar. 2) Plot characterist...

Aim: Northeastern Madagascar is a hotspot of plant diversity, but vanilla and rice farming are driving land-use change, including slash-and-burn management. It still remains unknown how land-use change and land-use history affect richness and composition of endemic, native and exotic herbaceous plant species. Location: Northeastern Madagascar. Me...

Background and Aims Diploid and polyploid Urochloa (including Brachiaria , Panicum and Megathyrsus species) C 4 tropical forage grasses originating from Africa and now planted worldwide are important for food security and the environment, often being planted in marginal lands. We aimed to characterize the nature of their genomes, the repetitive DNA...

Unprecedented changes in the Earth’s biota are prompting urgent efforts to describe and conserve plant diversity. For centuries, botanical monographs — comprehensive systematic treatments of a family or genus — have been the gold standard for disseminating scientific information to accelerate research. The lack of a monograph compounds the risk tha...

Ecologically dominant species are primary determinants of ecosystem function, especially in grassy ecosystems, but the history and biology of grassy ecosystems in Madagascar are poorly understood compared to those of Africa. Loudetia simplex is a C4 perennial grass that is adapted to fire and common to dominant across Africa. It is also widespread...

We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of measurements of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 375 traits across 29230 taxa from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual taxa descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of...

Ecologically dominant species are primary determinants of ecosystem function, especially in grassy ecosystems, but the history and biology of grassy ecosystems in Madagascar are poorly understood compared to those of Africa. Loudetia simplex is a C4 perennial grass that is adapted to fire and common to dominant across Africa. It is also widespread...

Free access at https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12411

The Asian species Saccharum rufipilum Steudel (1854: 409), sometimes accepted as Erianthus rufipilus (Steud.) Grisebach (1868: 93) or Miscanthus rufipilus (Steud.) Grassl (1972: 242), grouped within the Tripidium clade and separated from the representatives of the “Saccharum complex” in the recent phylogenetic study of Lloyd Evans et al. (2019), bo...

C4 photosynthesis evolved multiple times independently in angiosperms, but most origins are relatively old so that the early events linked to photo- synthetic diversification are blurred. The grass Alloteropsis semialata is an exception, as this species encompasses C4 and non-C4 populations. Using phylogenomics and population genomics, we infer the...

Role models are important for encouraging women to stay in STEM fields. Fewer than three percent of land plant species were named by women. This paper uses the International Plant Names Index, the Authors of Plant Names, and the mycological database Index Fungorum to continue documenting female contribution to plant and fungal naming. We identify w...

Societal impact statement Plants are essential for all life, providing the infrastructure and energy for our ecosystems. A recent report indicates that more than 500 plant species are already presumed extinct and many more could have been lost without anyone being aware, especially in species‐rich areas with high levels of human impact, and where b...

The global distribution of exotic species is the result of abiotic, biotic and dispersal filtering processes that shape the movement and success of species outside their native range. In this study we aim to understand how these filtering processes drive the fluxes of grass species among regions, the factors that influence which species establish o...

The ecology of Madagascar's grasslands is under-investigated and the dearth of ecological understanding of how disturbance by fire and grazing shapes these grasslands stems from a perception that disturbance shaped Malagasy grasslands only after human arrival. However, worldwide, fire and grazing shape tropical grasslands over ecological and evolut...

C4 photosynthesis is a complex trait that sustains fast growth and high productivity in tropical and subtropical conditions and evolved repeatedly in flowering plants. One of the major C4 lineages is Andropogoneae, a group of ∼ 1,200 grass species that includes some of the world's most important crops and species dominating tropical and some temper...

C 4 photosynthesis evolved multiple times independently in angiosperms, but most origins are relatively old so that the early events linked to photosynthetic diversification are blurred. The grass Alloteropsis semialata is an exception, as this single species encompasses C 4 and non-C 4 populations. Using phylogenomics and population genomics, we i...

The Bambusa-Dendrocalamus-Gigantochloa complex (BDG complex) is the most diversified and phylogenetically recalcitrant group of the paleotropical woody bamboos. Species of this complex occur in tropical and subtropical Asia and most of them are of great economic, cultural and ecological value. The lack of resolution achieved through the analyses of...

Crop wild relatives are important but often poorly known. This is the case for subtribe Saccharinae (Poaceae: Andropogoneae) which includes sugarcane (Saccharum) and sorghum (Sorghum). We present a phylogenetic and taxonomic account of the Malagasy endemic genus Lasiorhachis, previously included in Saccharum. New plastome and nuclear sequences were...