Nina Rønsted

The National Tropical Botanical Garden

Trees are an important part of many ecosystems. The Global Tree Assessment data can be used to focus conservation and restoration efforts for the circa 30% of tree species that are threatened worldwide. The conservation status for the tree flora of Limahuli Valley on Kaua'i Island and a restoration plan for 11 endangered tree species is evaluated i...

Retracing pathways of historical species introductions is fundamental to understanding the factors involved in the successful colonization and spread, centuries after a species’ establishment in an introduced range. Numerous plants have been introduced to regions outside their native ranges both intentionally and accidentally by European voyagers a...

Over the last few centuries, millions of plant specimens have been collected and stored within herbaria and biocultural collections. They therefore represent a considerable resource for a broad range of scientific uses. However, collections degrade over time, and it is therefore increasingly difficult to characterise their genetic signatures. Here,...

Background The Andean fever tree ( Cinchona L.; Rubiaceae) is the iconic source of bioactive quinine alkaloids which have been key to treating malaria for centuries. In particular, C. pubescens Vahl has been an important source of income for several countries in its native range in north-western South America. However, the genomic resources require...

The International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN Red List) is the world's most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of species. Countries, governmental agencies, and conservation organizations increasingly rely on IUCN Red List assessments to develop conservation policies and pr...

Climate can play a critical role in seed development and germination. Linking seed germination information with environmental variables and provenance may be important in understanding plant community structure and response to climate change, which can help guide conservation planning. Native Hawaiian Metrosideros (Myrtaceae; ʻŌhiʻa) is a hyperdive...

Plant molecular identification studies have, until recently, been limited to the use of highly conserved markers from plastid and other organellar genomes, compromising resolution in highly diverse plant clades. Due to their higher evolutionary rates and reduced paralogy, low-copy nuclear genes overcome this limitation but are difficult to sequence...

Abstract Historical herbarium collections have been proposed as a last resort for recovery of extinct plant species not represented in dedicated seed banks or other living conservation collections. For critically endangered plants at the brink of extinction, herbarium collections may also contain historical material from extinct subpopulations repr...

High-throughput sequencing, when combined with taxonomic expertise, is a powerful tool to refine and advance taxonomic classification, including at the species level. In the present work, a new species, Plantago campestris , is described out of the P. commersoniana species complex, based on phylogenomic and morphological evidence. The main morpholo...

Plant molecular identification studies have, until recently, been limited to the use of highly conserved markers from plastid and other organellar genomes, compromising resolution in highly diverse plant clades. Due to their higher evolutionary rates and reduced paralogy, low-copy nuclear genes overcome this limitation but are difficult to sequence...

Aim Crop wild relatives (CWR) are an essential source of genetic material for the improvement of certain traits in related crop species. Despite their importance, increasing public, scientific and political support, large gaps exist in the amount of genetic material collected and conserved of many CWR. Here, we construct a dataset on the distributi...

Kadua haupuensis is an extremely rare member of the Rubiaceae family that is endemic to lowland mesic forests on the north face of Mt. Hāʻupu, Kauaʻi. This species was discovered in 1998 along the base of a cliff on Mt. Hāʻupu. The only known population was observed in lowland mesic forest at 1200 ft (367 m) elevation. The population consisted of s...

Plantago robusta is a critically endangered species endemic to Saint Helena Island, a remote British island located in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. Despite its already acknowledged considerable importance for biodiversity conservation, the species is notably poorly studied from a systematic point of view. In this work we typify the name...

Thapsigargin and related compounds are produced by Thapsia garganica L. (Apiaceae) and are thought to be a defence compound against herbivory. Thapsigargin inhibits the sarco-endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) in both vertebrates and invertebrates. This activity is responsible for its potent toxicity, as well as the potential use to treat so...

Although most point sources of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are at lower latitudes, the Arctic region is contaminated. In particular, PAHs now dominate the POP body burden of the region’s marine biota at the lower trophic levels. Greenlandic Inuits have the most elevated levels of POPs in...

https://authorea.com/users/337132/articles/462777-travel-tales-of-a-worldwide-weed-genomic-signatures-reveal-colonial-trade-routes-and-prior-adaptation-are-key-to-the-success-of-plantago-major

Figs and fig wasps are a classic example of an obligate pollination mutualism. Decades of work untangling the ecology and evolution of these organisms has simultaneously contributed to development of the fields of mutualism, coevolution and plant–insect interactions at large. With > 800 species, figs (Ficus, Moraceae) are among some of the larger g...

Cyanea kuhihewa is a Hawaiian plant thought to be extinct but recently rediscovered. Oceanic island plants are uniquely adapted to their environment. Globally, many island species are now threatened needing extensive conservation management to survive. We highlight this global conservation challenge and provide an example from Hawai'i of how we may...

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Species of the genus Cinchona (Rubiaceae) have been used in traditional medicine, and as a source for quinine since its discovery as an effective medicine against malaria in the 17th century. Despite being the sole cure of malaria for almost 350 years, little is known about the chemical diversity between and within...

Background and aims: There are a number of disparate models predicting variation in plant chemical defences between species, and within a single species over space and time. These can give conflicting predictions. Here, we review a number of these theories, before assessing their power to predict the spatial-temporal variation of thapsigargins bet...

Coevolutionary theory suggests that an arms race between plants and herbivores yields increased plant specialized metabolite diversity and the geographic mosaic theory of coevolution predicts that coevolutionary interactions vary across geographic scales. Consequently, plant specialized metabolite diversity is expected to be highest in coevolutiona...

Plantago is a cosmopolitan genus including over 250 species, concentrated in temperate and high-elevation tropical regions. The taxonomy of Plantago is very difficult, mainly because of its reduced morphology, which features relatively few characters for species classification. Consequently, the infrageneric classification of the genus remains cont...

Aloe vera gel is a globally popular natural product used for the treatment of skin conditions. Its useful properties are attributed to the presence of bioactive polysaccharides. Nearly 25% of the 600 species in the genus Aloe are used locally in traditional medicine, indicating that the bioactive components in Aloe vera may be common across the gen...

Plants have evolved a multitude of adaptations to survive extreme conditions. Succulent plants have the capacity to tolerate periodically dry environments, due to their ability to retain water in a specialized tissue, termed hydrenchyma. Cell wall polysaccharides are important components of water storage in hydrenchyma cells. However, the role of t...

Aim The aim of this study was to resolve the phylogenetic placement of island taxa, reconstruct ancestral origins and resolve competing hypotheses of dispersal patterns and biogeographical histories for oceanic island endemic taxa within subgenus Plantago (Plantaginaceae). Location Juan Fernández Islands, the Auckland Islands, Lord Howe Island, Ne...

GC-MS results for all specimens in the untargeted dataset of 285 compounds identified tentatively by comparison with the NIST 8.0 library.

Filtered GC-MS data for all samples of the targeted dataset including occurrence of the 20 standard compounds.

Herbarium samples are increasingly being recognized for their potential in answering a wide range of research questions. However, the suitability of herbarium samples for chemical analysis is largely unexplored as they are thought to be too degraded. The aim of this study was to explore terpenoid profiles across time and geographic space for four m...

Tropical rainforests harbour much of the earth's plant diversity but little is still known about how it evolved and why a small number of plant genera account for the majority. Whether this success is due to rapid turnover or constant evolution for these hyper-diverse plant genera is here tested for the species-rich genus Ficus L. (figs). The pan-t...

Plants produce a multitude of metabolites that contribute to their fitness and survival and play a role in local adaptation to environmental conditions. The effects of environmental variation are particularly well studied within the genus Plantago; however, previous studies have largely focused on targeting specific metabolites. Studies exploring m...

Background: As the popularity of Aloe vera extracts continues to rise, a desire to fully understand the individual polymer components of the leaf mesophyll, their relation to one another, and the effects they have on the human body are increasing. Polysaccharides present in the leaf mesophyll have been identified as the components responsible for t...

Ethnopharmacological relevance: The discovery of the antimalarial agent artemisinin is considered one of the most significant success stories of ethnopharmacological research in recent times. The isolation of artemisinin was inspired by the use of Artemisia annua in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2015. Antimala...

The genus Euphorbia is among the most diverse and species-rich plant genera on Earth, exhibiting a near-cosmopolitan distribution and extraordinary chemical diversity, especially across highly toxic macro-and polycyclic diterpenoids. However, very little is known about drivers and evolutionary origins of chemical diversity within Euphorbia . Here,...

We present taxonomic and geographic novelties in the genus Plantago from Chile. More specifically, we describe P. nebularis, a new species endemic to Cerro Moreno, Antofagasta region, and propose P. zoellneriana, a new name for P. sericea subsp. araucana. We also lectotypify the name P. sericea, expand the recorded distribution of P. lanceolata and...

Ficus (Moraceae) is well diversified in the Neotropics with two lineages inhabiting the wet forests of this region. The hemiepiphytes of section Americanae are the most diversified with c. 120 species, whereas section Pharmacosycea includes about 20 species mostly with a terrestrial habit. To reconstruct the biogeographical history and diversificat...

The neotropical Rubiaceae genus Ladenbergia Klotzsch belongs to the tribe Cinchoneae and includes ca. 35 species. Its species occur mostly in South America, with few reaching Central America. Ladenbergia is centered in the Tropical Andes and is closely related to Remijia due to morphological similarities. Previous Rubiaceae phylogeny with a limited...

Plantago section Maritima comprises a group of Mediterranean narrow-leaved plantains whose taxonomy is still poorly resolved. A nomenclatural and taxonomic study of some relevant names within this group is presented. The names Plantago acanthophylla, Plantago holosteum, Plantago holosteum f. vestita, Plantago penyalarensis, Plantago radicata, Plant...

The aloes are a major group of Old World succulents, comprising over 600 taxa in the genera Aloe, Aloiampelos, Aloidendron, Aristaloe, Gonialoe, and Kumara. Together with Astroloba, Gasteria, Haworthia, Haworthiopsis, and Tulista, they comprise a group known collectively as the alooids, after a Dahlgrenian concept, within Xanthorrhoeaceae subfam. A...

Plantago subg. Coronopus is a mainly Mediterranean group of plantains whose taxonomy is very complex. Two Linnaean names within this subgenus still remain untypified: P. serraria and P. subulata. We here discuss the possible types for these names, and designate lectotypes for both. For nomenclatural purposes, the names P. triquetra and P. pungens a...

A nomenclatural study on the names of the narrow-leaved plantains linked to Plantago holosteum is presented. The names P. carinata, P. gerardii, P. holosteum, P. maritima var. apennina, P. subulata sensu Wulfen, and P. wulfenii have been studied. The name P. holosteum is lectotypified on illustration by Bauhin & Cherler, P. wulfenii by Willdenow on...

Every plant species on Earth interacts in some way or another with microorganisms and it is well known that certain forms of symbiosis between different organisms can drive evolution. Within some clades of Rubiaceae (coffee family), a specific plant-bacteria interaction exists in which non-pathological endophytes are present in the leaves of their...

Introduction: Authentication of herbal products to ensure efficacy and safety require efficient separation and quantification of constituents. Standard assays for Cinchona bark used for the treatment of malaria and production of quinine, either use only spectrophotometry to detect two pairs of diastereoisomers of quinine and cinchonine type alkalo...

Considerable inter- and intraspecific variation with respect to the quantity and composition of plant natural products exists. The processes that drive this variation remain largely unknown. Understanding which factors determine chemical diversity has the potential to shed light on plant defenses against herbivores and diseases and accelerate drug...

This contribution presents updates to the knowledge of the species of Euphorbia that occur in Santa Catarina state, southern Brazil. More specifically, we here typify the names E. cyathophora, E. hirtella, E. paranensis and E. stenophylla, and present the first records of E. cyathophora, E. graminea, E. ophthalmica and E. thymifolia for Santa Catar...

Cinchona anderssonii, a new species from the Yungas forests of the Andes in Bolivia, is described and illustrated. It is unique in Cinchona by having the combination of elliptic leaf blades glossy above, distinct circular pit domatia at secondary vein axils, basipetally dehiscent capsules, and relatively large seeds (8–11 mm long). A taxonomic key...

The well-being of the global human population rests on provisioning services delivered by 12% of the Earth's ∼400,000 plant species1. Plant utilization by humans is influenced by species traits2, 3, 4, but it is not well understood which traits underpin different human needs5. Here, we focus on palms (Arecaceae), one of the most economically import...

We analyzed the feasibility of using DNA-barcoding as a tool to achieve a correct and rapid association between different life stages of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera insects in high Andean streams from La Paz, Bolivia. We focused on this particular environment because the water of streams from the glaciers is becoming scarce, and this...

Bioprospecting is the search for valuable products from natural sources. Given that most species are poorly known, a key question is where to search. Ethnodirected bioprospecting approaches use traditional knowledge in the process of selecting plants to screen for desired properties. A complementary approach is to utilize phylogenetic analyses base...

Abstract book of 23rd Symposium on ‘Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology’ of the German Botanical Society September 8 – 11, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München & The German Botanical Society

Bolivia is one of the most biologically diverse countries on the planet. Between the Andes and the Amazon drainage basin spans the Yungas, a vast forested region shown to be extremely species rich in macro-organisms. However, it remains unclear whether this high diversity is also reflected in microbial diversity. Here we assess the genetic, taxonom...

The current decrease of new drugs brought to the market has fostered renewed interest in plant-based drug discovery. Given the alarming rate of biodiversity loss, systematic methodologies in finding new plant-derived drugs are urgently needed. Medicinal uses of plants were proposed as proxy for bioactivity, and phylogenetic patterns in medicinal pl...

Southern Africa has three indigenous genera in the Amaryllidaceae subfamily Allioideae. Prototulbaghia is monospecific and Allium is represented by a single species, whereas Tulbaghia has > 20 described species. Tulbaghia spp. are popular in horticulture and used extensively as medicinal plants in southern Africa. Despite their popularity and econo...

This article presents and describes Plantago humboldtiana , an extremely narrow endemic rheophytic new species from a waterfall in Corupá, Santa Catarina state, southern Brazil. The new species is unique in presenting a combination of type-G antrorse trichomes on scapes, pendulous inflorescences and 1-seeded pyxidia. Only one population is known to...

Ethnopharmacological relevance: The genus Euphorbia (spurges, Euphorbiaceae) is the third largest genus of flowering plants, with almost 2000 species. Its exceptional diversity of growth forms and near-cosmopolitan distribution have attracted human interest since ancient times. For instance in Australia, topical application of latex of Euphorbia p...

Aim: Using a dated phylogenetic hypothesis with nearly complete species-level sampling of Ficus subsect. Urostigma with several samples per species, spatio-temporal diversification patterns are clarified, and alternative hypotheses for repeated Palaeotropical intercontinental disjunctions (PIDs) are revisited. Location: (Sub)tropics of Africa, Mada...