CARGILL, D. CHRISTINE. Department of Plant Biology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901. - A taxonomic revision of the genus Fossombronia, suborder Fossombroniineae in Africa.
As European colonization extended across the globe, into the
continents of the New World, Africa and Australia, so too the numbers
of collections of plants expanded worldwide, even in inconspicuous
groups such as the genus Fossombronia. Due to its close
proximity to Europe, the continent of Africa was one of the earliest
regions to yield new species within this genus. To date 37 species
have been reported from the continent and surrounding islands only
seven of which are cosmopolitan species common to Europe. Certainly
the majority of species have been described from South Africa which
exhibits a temperate to arid environment. Whether the remaining 30
taxa are truly endemic is problematic, however, since a comprehensive
study of the genus in Africa has never been undertaken. In this
revision, a combination of morphometric, molecular and traditional
morphological methods have been used to evaluate the systematic status
of all previously named species. Evaluation of the taxa described up
until the early 1950's, has reduced the taxa recognized as good
species to 10, many species having been moved to the genus
Austrofossombronia. The remaining fourteen new species named
by Perold from 1997-1999 are still under evaluation.
Key words: Africa, Fossombronia, Fossombroniineae, South Africa