Current major research areas in the Systematics Group

Project title. Phylogeny of major groups of eucalypts

People involved in project.   Professor Pauline Ladiges, Dr Michael Bayly, Dr Andrew Drinnan and Dr Frank Udovicic (Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne)

Publications See for example:

Ladiges et al. (1995)   Phylogeny of eucalypts – molecules and morphology .   Australian Systematic Botany 8, 483-497

Ladiges, P.Y., Udovicic, and Nelson, G. (2003) Australian biogeographic connections and the phylogeny of large genera in the plant family Myrtaceae.   Journal of Biogeography   30, 989-998

Parra-O, C., Bayly, M. Udovicic, F., Ladiges, P.Y.  (2006)  ETS sequences support the monophyly of the eucalypt genus Corymbia (Myrtaceae).  Taxon 55, 653-663.

Bayly, MJ and Ladiges PY (2007) Divergent paralogues of ribosomal DNA in eucalypts Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 44, 346-356.

Project title. Phylogeny and Taxonomy of phyllodinous acacias  

People involved in project.   Professor Pauline Ladiges, Dr Gillian Brown and Dr Daniel Murphy, (Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne), Dr Sita Ariati, Stuart Gardner

Publications. See for example:

Murphy, D.J., Miller, J.T., Bayer, R.J., and Ladiges, P.Y. (2003) Molecular phylogeny of Acacia subgenus Phyllodineae (Mimosoideae: Leguminosae) based on DNA sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region.   Aust. Syst. Bot. 16, 19-26.

Miller, J.T., Grimes, J.W., Murphy, D.J., Bayer, R.J., and P.Y. Ladiges (2003).   A phylogenetic analysis of the Acacieae and Ingeae (Mimosoideae: Fabaceae) based on trnK, matK, psbA-trnH, and trnL/trnF sequence data.   Systematic Botany 28(3): 558-566.

Gardener, S., Murphy, D.J., Newbigin, E., Drinnan, A. and Ladiges, P.Y.  (2005)  An investigation of phyllode variation in Acacia verniciflua and A. leprosa (Mimosaceae), and implications for taxonomy.  Aust. Syst. Bot. 18, 383-398.

Ladiges, P.Y., Ariati, S.R., and Murphy, D. J.  (2006) Biogeography of the Acacia victoriae, pyrifolia and murryana species groups in arid Australia. J. Arid Environ. 66, 462-476.

Brown, G. K., Ariati, S. R., Murphy, D. J., Miller, J. and Ladiges, P.Y.  (2006) Bipinnate acacias (Acacia  subg. Phyllodineae sect. Botrycephalae) of eastern Australia are polyphyletic based on DNA sequence data.  Aust. Syst. Bot. 19, 315-326.

Project title.   Historical Biogeography

People involved in project.   Professor Pauline Ladiges and Prof Gareth Nelson and research students working on various genera in Australian flora.

Publications.   See for example:

Nelson and Ladiges (1996)   Paralogy in cladistic biogeography and analysis of paralogy-free subtrees.   American Museum Novitates No. 3167 58pp.

Ladiges et al (1997). Subtree analysis, Nothofagus, and Pacific Biogeography.   Cladistics 13, 125-129.

Ladiges, P.Y., Udovicic, and Nelson, G. (2003) Australian biogeographic connections and the phylogeny of large genera in the plant family Myrtaceae.   Journal of Biogeography  30, 989-998
        
Ladiges, P.Y., Kellerman, J. Nelson, G. and Humphries, C.J.  (2005) Historical biogeography of Australian Rhamnaceae, tribe Pomaderreae.  J. Biogeog. 32, 1909-1919.

Brown, G.K., Nelson, G. and Ladiges, P.Y. (2006)  Historical biogeography of the Rhododendron section Vireya and the Malesian archipelago.   J. Biogeog. 33, 1929-1944.

Student research projects

Current students and projects   include: Jacinta Burke (Dendrobium orchids, joint with P. Adams and S. Lawson); Catherine Clowes (Acacias, joint with G. Brown);  Trisha Downing (Grevilleas, joint with E. James); Adele Gibbs (Eudesmid eucalypts, joint with F. Udovicic, RBG, Melbourne),   Stuart Gardner (Acacia development, joint with A. Drinnan); Jürgen Kellerman (Rhamnaceae, joint with F. Udovicic and N. Walsh RBG, Melbourne), Claire Marks (Australian Nicotiana; joint with E. Newbigin); Bryan Mole (Rutaceae, Phebalium; joint with M. Durreto, RBG, Tasmania and F. Udovicic RBG, Melbourne); Carlos Parra-O (Corymbia, bloodwoods eucalypts, joint with A. Drinnan, M. Bayly and F. Udovicic).