Nothofagus, key genus of plant geography, in time and space, living and fossil, ecology and phylogeny

• Main Author: Steenis, C.G.G.J. van
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1971
• Subjects: Antarctic; New Zealand; Pacific; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/record/525869; http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/document/566289

Data are given on the taxonomy and ecology of the genus. Some New Caledonian species grow in or descend to the lowland. Details are provided on the distribution within New Guinea. For dominance of Nothofagus, and Fagaceae in general, it is suggested that possibly symbionts may contribute to this. Some notes are made on regeneration and germination in New Guinea. A special chapter is devoted to a discussion of dispersal which appears to be extremely slow, with the implication that Nothofagus indubitably needs land for its spread, and has needed such for attaining its colossal range, encircling onwards of New Guinea the South Pacific (fossil pollen in Antarctica) to as far as southern South America. Map 1. An other chapter is devoted to response of Nothofagus to the present climate. The possibility is envisaged that it could have grown along the border of the Antarctic Continent during a milder climate in the Cretaceous and Tertiary. The fossil record is ample, both by macrofossils and fossil pollen. Of the three pollen types, the brassii and fusca types are already found in the Upper Cretaceous in Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica, and in the Eocene in Fuegia the menziesii type being found hitherto not earlier than the Lower Tertiary. Table 1. No reliable Nothofagus fossils have ever been found on the northern hemisphere. There it is represented by its counterpart, Fagus, with which it forms the subfamily Fagoideae of the family Fagaceae. Macrofossils of Fagus are known from the Tertiary and possibly also from the Upper Cretaceous (on the northern hemisphere to a fairly high latitude. Map 1. Nothofagus is called a key genus for plant-geography because it meets the three criteria for safe biogeographical reasoning, viz. it has a sound taxonomy, an ample fossil record, and diaspores for which long distance dispersal is excluded. Fagoideae occupy a remarkable hour-glass-shaped bi-hemispheric range, with the contraction in the Malesian tropics. Map 1. Whereas even at present the largest amount of morphological ...