Reto Nyffeler

University of Zurich | UZH · Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany

This data paper presents a largely phylogeny-based online taxonomic backbone for the Cactaceae compiled from literature and online sources using the tools of the EDIT Platform for Cybertaxonomy. The data will form a contribution of the Caryophyllales Network for the World Flora Online and serve as the base for further integration of research result...

Adult flower‐visiting insects feed on nectar and pollen and partly collect floral resources to feed their larvae. The reduction in food availability has therefore been proposed as one of the main causes for the drastic decline in flower‐visiting insects in Central Europe. We compared the current (2012–2017) abundances of food plants of different gr...

This second edition provides a comprehensive list of the latest taxonomy including the updated relevant plant data. All succulent species of the monocotyledonous plant families and genera are described in detail. This work will be particularly useful to botanists, plant taxonomists and scholars as well as to herbaria and botanic gardens. It will al...

The ongoing paradigm shift in taxonomy from individual contributions to a truly collaborative and forward-looking endeavour results in a number of challenges related to distributed data management. Examination of physical specimens remains a key task, but searching for specimen data, literature, and name information is now mostly done online. In th...

Floristic similarities between European and Asian mountain ranges have long been recognized, and the hypothesis that European mountain plant taxa immigrated from Asian mountain areas has been confirmed by several molecular phylogenetic analyses. Callianthemum contains ca. 14 species, of which ca. 11 are distributed in Asia and three in Europe. A mo...

This second edition provides a comprehensive list of the latest taxonomy including the updated relevant plant data. All succulent species of the monocotyledonous plant families and genera are described in detail. This work will be particularly useful to botanists, plant taxonomists and scholars as well as to herbaria and botanic gardens. It will al...

Morphological and anatomical plant traits provide important characters for plant identification, and provide vital information to support classification systems based on molecular phylogenetic studies. The tribe Senecioneae (Asteraceae: Asteroideae) has recently been reclassified as a result of molecular phylogenetic investigations, and species wit...

The Caryophyllales constitute a major lineage of flowering plants with approximately 12500 species in 39 families. A taxonomic backbone at the genus level is provided that reflects the current state of knowledge and accepts 749 genera for the order. A detailed review of the literature of the past two decades shows that enormous progress has been ma...

In the Western Alps, two subspecies of Saussurea alpina are found in a partly overlapping distribution area; however, they prefer distinct habitats. While Saussurea alpina ssp. alpina is distributed throughout the Alps and beyond, S. alpina ssp. depressa is endemic to the region ranging from the Maritime Alps (France) to the Valais (Switzerland). T...

Figueiredo, E., G. F. Smith & R. Nyffeler (2013). August Wulfhorst (1861–1936) and his overlooked contributions on the flora of Angola. Candollea 68: 123–131. In English, English and French abstracts. August Wulfhorst (1861–1936), a German missionary attached to the Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft, collected material in Omupanda (Amboland, Uukuanya...

Herbaria contain many specimens for which identification to species and family is not up-to-date with current classifications. However, updated species names are essential as key information for publishing digitized specimen data on internet-based online resources such as Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF; www.gbif.org). Keeping herbar...

Background/Question/Methods As a matter of course, densely populated areas have undergone huge environmental changes during last centuries. Surprisingly, such areas often lack careful documentation of how nature or more specifically, fauna and flora have transformed, and hence knowledge on the significance of such changes is limited. In the Zuric...

Die alteingesessene Zürcherische Botanische Gesellschaft mit Gründungsjahr 1890 wendet sich ihrem zentralen Anliegen zu und wagt sich an eine Neuauflage (Überarbeitung) der Flora des Kantons Zürich. Über 170 Jahre ist es her, seit Albert Kölliker 1839 die bisher einzige Flora des Kantons publizierte. Seither hat sich die Landschaft stark verändert,...

The cacti are one of the most celebrated radiations of succulent plants. There has been much speculation about their age, but progress in dating cactus origins has been hindered by the lack of fossil data for cacti or their close relatives. Using a hybrid phylogenomic approach, we estimated that the cactus lineage diverged from its closest relative...

We provide a short discussion of how the use of molecular data and sophisticated analytical methods has expanded our knowledge about the phylogenetic relationships among flowering plants and how this affects the familial and suprafamilial classification of succulents. A tree diagram illustrates the current hypothesis on their interrelationships and...

The outstanding diversity of biota of the Cape region is expressed differently in major groups: flowering plants and bees show high species richness in few clades combined with high endemism and remarkable functional adaptations; mammals and reptiles have a rich diversity of distinct intra-specific genetic lineages; and fresh-water fish are charact...

Traditional classifications of the suborder Portulacineae recognize six families: Basellaceae, Cactaceae, Didiereaceae, Halophytaceae, Hectorellaceae, and Portulacaceae. However, phylogenetic analyses based on molecular sequence data indicate that the traditional family Portulacaceae is paraphyletic and consists of three distinct lineages that also...

Traditional classifications of the suborder Portulacineae recognize six families: Basellaceae, Cactaceae, Didiereaceae, Halophytaceae, Hectorellaceae, and Portulacaceae. However, phylogenetic analyses based on molecular sequence data indicate that the traditional family Portulacaceae is paraphyletic and consists of three distinct lineages that also...

We provide a short discussion of how the use of molecular data and sophisticated analytical methods has expanded our knowledge about the phylogenetic relationships among flowering plants and how this affects the familial and suprafamilial classification of succulents. A tree diagram illustrates the current hypothesis on their interrelationships and...

Los tratamientos mas recientes de la familia Cactaceae para Uruguay son las publicaciones de Arechavaleta (1905), Osten (1941), y Herter (1953–55). En comparación con las especies globulares de la familia (géneros Parodia [incl. Notocactus], Frailea y Gymnocalycium), que son bastante bien conocidas a través de numerosas publicaciones posteriores, l...

The succulent life form is a tried and true strategy for plants living in arid environments. It has evolved in many distantly related lineages comprising 12,500 species from 70 flowering plant families and has spawned remarkable radiations. Three major groups are generally recognized: (1) stem succulents (that is, leafless cactus-like growth forms)...

Descreve-se e ilustra-se uma nova espécie, Parodia gaucha M. Machado & Larocca (Cactaceae, Notocacteae), proveniente de Encruzilhada do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. A nova espécie é morfologicamente muito similar a P. muricata (Otto ex Pfeiffer) Hofacker, mas pode ser distinguida desta última pela presença de uma projeção cônica abaixo de cada a...

Succulence is an adaptive strategy that allows plants to remain active during seasonal water shortage. The term was first used formally by Johann (Jean) Bauhin in 1619 to refer to plants with thick, juicy leaves. Its subsequent use and selected definitions are critically discussed, including concepts such as utilizable water, caudiciforms and pachy...

The nomenclatural problems involved with subgeneric names under Parodia are elucidated, and the nomenclature of all existing names is evaluated in detail. Subgeneric names under Notocactus are similarly covered in a second part. A third part consists of a list of published subgeneric names for the group arranged alphabetically by the epithet of the...

The nomenclatural problems involved with subgeneric names under Parodia are elucidated, and the nomenclature of all existing names is evaluated in detail. Subgeneric names under Notocactus are similarly covered in a second part. A third part consists of a list of published subgeneric names for the group arranged alphabetically by the epithet of the...

Recent molecular and morphological systematic investigations revealed that the cacti are most closely related to Anacampseroteae, Portulaca and Talinum of the family Portulacaceae (ACPT clade of suborder Portulacineae). A combined analysis of ndhF, matK, and nad1 sequence data from the chloroplast and the mitochondrial genomes indicates that the tr...

The cacti are well-known desert plants, widely recognized by their specialized growth form and essentially leafless condition. Pereskia, a group of 17 species with regular leaf development and function, is generally viewed as representing the "ancestral cactus," although its placement within Cactaceae has remained uncertain. Here we present a new h...

Phylogenetic relationships within Malvaceae s.l., a clade that includes the traditional families Bombacaceae, Malvaceae s.str., Sterculiaceae, and Tiliaceae, have become greatly clarified thanks to recent molecular systematic research. In this paper, we use DNA sequences of four plastid regions (atpB, matK, ndhF, and rbcL) to study relationships wi...

Previous molecular phylogenetic analyses have revealed that elements of the former families Malvaceae sensu stricto and Bombacaceae together form a well-supported clade that has been named Malvatheca. Within Malvatheca, two major lineages have been observed; one, Bombacoideae, corresponds approximately to the palmate-leaved Bombacaceae, and the oth...

Evolutionary diversification of a phenotypic trait reflects the tempo and mode of trait evolution, as well as the phylogenetic topology and branch lengths. Comparisons of trait variance between sister groups provide a powerful approach to test for differences in rates of diversification, controlling for differences in clade age. We used simulation...

Cacti are a large and diverse group of stem succulents predominantly occurring in warm and arid North and South America. Chloroplast DNA sequences of the trnK intron, including the matK gene, were sequenced for 70 ingroup taxa and two outgroups from the Portulacaceae. In order to improve resolution in three major groups of Cactoideae, trnL-trnF seq...

AbstractA molecular phylogenetic study of Durio s.lat. was conducted based on sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA for 30 ingroup exemplars, representing 16 species, and two taxa of Cullenia as outgroups. The phylogeny suggests the existence of two well-circumscribed clades composed, respectively, of species w...

Eulychnia iquiquensis and Echinopsis deserticola occur sympatrically in coastal regions of the Chilean Atacama desert. They often grow in mixed stands and their superficial appearance and general morphology is so strikingly similar that the two species are easily confused when not in flower or fruit. However, the stem anatomy of the two rather dist...

The circumscription and phylogenetic position of the tribe Durioneae (Bombacaceae or /Malvaceae/Helicteroideae) was investigated by supplementing a previously publishedndhF data set. The present analysis supports a narrow conception of Durioneae (excludingCamptostemon andPapuodendron) and confirms a close relationship withHelicteres, Reevesia, Unge...

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The monophyly of the group comprising the core malvalean families, Bombacaceae, Malvaceae, Sterculiaceae, and Tiliaceae, was recently confirmed by molecular studies, but the internal structure of this clade is poorly understood. In this study, we examined sequences of the chloroplast ndhF gene (aligned length 2226 bp) from 70 exemplars representing...

:The three species of Uebelmannia (Cactaceae: Cactoideae; endemic to Minas Cerais, Brazil) are noteworthy for their tough, bumpy stem surface and the presence of conspicuous mucilage cavities restricted to the outer part of the stems. The anatomy of the mature structures and their ontogeny was investigated from microtome sections. The uncommon surf...

The genusEriosyceas circumscribed by Kattermann (Succulent Plant Research1: 1–176, 1994) comprises six subsections with 33 species and 38 heterotypic infraspecific taxa and is restricted in distribution to Chile and NW Argentina. A total of 19 anatomical and gross morphological characters were studied from stem material of 27 taxa ofEriosyceand six...

Stems of Eulychnia (a genus of six to nine species of candelabriform or arborescent cacti) have a parenchymatic cortex with two distinct regions. The outer chlorenchymatic layer is characterized by a conspicuous parallel striping, whereas the inner cortex region devoid of chlorophyll has a coarsely granular aspect. Stem samples from nine accessions...

Nyffeler, R. & Eggli, U.: Berger's “Kakteen” – the end of a nomenclatural nightmare in sight? –Taxon 45: 301‐304. 1996. – ISSN 0040‐0262. Berger's book Kakteen is a constant source of nomenclatural uncertainty due to new combinations in genera that are obviously not accepted by the author. The arguments in favour of and against accepting Berger's c...