And now something different…

Posted on September 6, 2015 by tstou10

It has been a while since I blabbered about the cotyledons of Claytonia, but I want to let you all in on something I find VERY interesting…… so maybe we should start with a survey, to see what you think. How many cotyledons do you think Claytonia have? Keep in mind, they are dicots.

If you guessed that Claytonia have 2 cotyledons, you’re right… but you’re not the only one that is right. Technically, those of you that guessed Claytonia have only 1 cotyledon are also correct — that’s right, there is in fact a group of dicots with only 1 cotyledon (probably several, but that question exceeds the scope of this blog post). Claytonia Section Claytonia, otherwise known as the tuberous perennials, lack a second cotyledon present in other species of Claytonia (and all of their closest relatives). To me, this is just another reason why you should believe that Claytonia is the whackiest group of plants this side of the Mississippi River. 😉

So who cares, there has been a loss of one of the cotyledons in this group of plants. One time only evolution, and now these plants simply can’t recover that lost cotyledon — I’m over it… right? WRONG! There is something fishy going on here, and it has to do with a certain caudicose perennial I have mentioned before: Claytonia megarhiza (pictured below).

You can see from the second image (the photo immediately above) that Claytonia megarhiza clearly has two cotyledons, not one like the tuberous, perennial Claytonia species I mentioned before. Thus, you’d expect that this species is more closely related to those other Claytonia that have two cotyledons, right? Well…

Above is a preliminary phylogenetic tree that I presented at the Botanical Society of America Meeting this year in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This tree has been developed from ~500 single nucleotide polymorphisms isolated from the nuclear genome of all of the samples included (using ddRADseq). You can see from the tree that the caudicose perennial C. megarhiza (indicated by [morphologically similar, but anatomically quite different] cartoon carrots ) clearly has a close association with the tuberous, perennial Claytonia, albeit the exact area in the tree where they will stabilize is still yet to be determined. Without question, Claytonia megarhiza is nested somewhere in this clade of otherwise tuberous, perennial Claytonia.

So how did C. megarhiza find itself with 2 cotyledons while all of its closest relatives (including those diverging away from the lot much earlier in evolutionary history) have only 1? If you have the answer… I would love to hear it from ya! From my perspective, it is a question that is ‘to be determined’ but I am hopeful that my dissertation will change things. 😉

Yukon — too much good stuff!

Posted on August 25, 2014 by tstou10

Cheers from the Ogilvie Mountains!

Hey, all — I have returned from the Yukon Territory and I want to share with you at least SOME of the highlights regarding my fieldwork there. Ingrid Jordon-Thaden and I summarized most of it in our recent post on Experiment.com (click here to see the lab note), but I wasn’t able share all of the pictures that I wanted to share there — my administrative privileges on Claytonia.org allow me to expand a bit here 😉

So what did I see, exactly? Oh gosh, I collected a fair amount of Silene, a few Androsace septentrionalis seeds and vouchers, at least a few Boechera, and I even grabbed an endemic Claytonia to make the trip VERY worthwhile. Claytonia ogilviensis (two pictures below) was my main target, so I was very glad that we were able to collect it. I found at least one population, but I also got the opportunity to sample from some recent herbarium specimens where C. ogilviensis has been collected outside of the range from which it was originally described, each with a slightly different morphology (and geology) to boot — I am VERY excited to see how this all fits into the phylogeny I am developing (with help from collaborators) for Claytonia Section Claytonia.

Tuber from putatively old individual of Claytonia ogilviensis in the Ogilvie Mountains, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Basal leaf (left center) and remnants of flowering stem (right center) of Claytonia ogilviensis in the Ogilvie Mountains, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Based on my recent observations in the field, and from scanning herbarium specimens collected all across western North America, I can tell why many people have suggested that Claytonia ogilviensis (pictured above) may be closely related to C. umbellata (pictured below). It doesn’t help that I am not EXACTLY sure about who the REAL C. umbellata is, considering I collected four distinct genotypes (each with their own distinct morphologies) all within about 20 air miles of the vaguely described type locality. To make matters worse (read about it here), my collaborator has found another distinct lineage of C. umbellata in eastern Oregon that is nearly identical (genetically) to the Ogilvie Mountains endemic (C. ogilviensis) that I just collected… Claytonia is a tough cookie to crack!

Tuber from individual of Claytonia umbellata in the Diamond Mountains, Nevada.

Basal leaf of Claytonia umbellata from the Diamond Mountains, Nevada.

Basal and cauline leaves of Claytonia umbellata from the Pine Nut Mountains, Nevada.

Aside from collecting the narrow endemic Claytonia ogilviensis in the Yukon Territory, I also found an interesting population currently treated as C. tuberosa (pictured below) in the area of Keno Hill. In my most recent nrITS phylogeny, it appears that these plants may be more closely related to samples of C. multiscapa from the Rocky Mountains than they are to other samples of C. tuberosa collected just to the west in Alaska — I don’t yet have chloroplast data to support this relationship (the Idaho area C. multiscapa sequences are from GenBank).

Face-view of flower of Claytonia tuberosa s.l. from the top of Keno Hill, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Claytonia tuberosa s.l. photographed on top of Keno Hill, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Lastly, I got to see and collect a VERY beautiful Claytonia in the Kluane National Park, a member (and my first sample) of Section Rhizomatosae — Claytonia sarmentosa (photographed below). This rhizomatous perennial seems to really prefer talus slopes, not unlike C. ogilviensis, C. umbellata, and the C. “peirsonii” complex.

Face-view of flower of Claytonia sarmentosa from the Kluane Ranges, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Claytonia sarmentosa photographed on the King’s Throne Trail, Kluane Ranges, Yukon Territory, Canada.

It was a great trip, but I’m glad to be home — with school about to start, and another spring season just around the corner, it is time to REALLY get some work done!!!

Up Next = Molecular lab + Herbarium work.

Beginning of the end of Silene verecunda sensu lato

Posted on July 4, 2014 by tstou10

Hey, all — I thought I would share with you that my recent manuscript with colleagues (Diana D. Jolles and Heath A. Bartosh) describing a new species of Silene (Caryophyllaceae) has finally been published! You can access our article here, or the whole issue is here. It is a very special issue for the California Fish and Game Journal, #100, and the first ever all botany issue for the journal — some really GREAT articles in there that are worth reading, including an introduction by Governor Jerry Brown. Neat Stuff!

As always, I am interested to know what you think about this topic — the Silene verecunda problem is VERY complex, but fortunately the taxonomy isn’t.

¡Holy frijoles! You are just too cute, and too close to home…

Posted on March 24, 2014 by tstou10

OK, so I might just have a new favorite Claytonia after my most recent trip into the desert in northwestern Nevada. Let me just tell you something — in the Desert Southwest, spring has sprung! Just like my collaborator at Eastern Washington University (Dr. Robin O’Quinn), I think I am falling in love with the tuberous perennial ‘Great Basin Spring Beauty’ (C. umbellata) — photographed here on March 21st, 2014.

As Stevie Wonder might say, isn’t she lovely?!

It gets better… Also photographed on March 21, 2014, below are some pictures of plants from another population of C. umbellata that occurs on a different substrate in another mountain range nearby in Nevada.

There’s something funny going on here, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it…

Question for readers out there: Who thinks the above plants look similar to the below plants from southern California? Just wonderin’ about evolutionary relationships 😉

no luck with Peirson’s rock cress

Posted on August 21, 2013 by tstou10

I went up to San Gorgonio Mountain last weekend with Diana Jolles (all pictures credit D.D. Jolles) to look for Boechera peirsonii at a locality it has not been found. We looked for it a bit south of Charlton Peak near (just below) Dry Lake View, accessed from Dry Lake. This sits on the west end of the bowl that was once a large glacier on the north slope of San Gorgonio Mountain, only a stone’s throw from the type locality for Boechera peirsonii.

We checked out this super sweet habitat, but didn’t find any Boechera peirsonii just below Dry Lake View, at the toe slope of the north face of San Gorgonio Mountain.

Not to say that we didn’t find any Boechera, we just didn’t find the one we were looking for! Looks like what we call Boechera platysperma in southern California needs some work!

Next week, cirque east of San Gorgonio Mountain above Mineshaft Saddle. Fish Creek Trail? Any takers?

Claytonia.org

what is a species in this group anyway?

Tag Archives: alpine flora