Andrew C. Rozefelds

Leaf essential oils of the genus Leptospermum (Myrtaceae) in eastern Australia. Part 7. Leptospermum petersonii, L. liversidgei and allies

Leptospermum amboinense was shown to exist in two chemical varieties, the oil of one chemotype being entirely sesquiterpenoid and that of the second predominantly monoterpenoid, while L. ?amboinense gave an oil which was monoterpenoid in character and contained geranial (13%) and sabinene (13%) as major components. The principal components of the oil of L. emarginatum were α-eudesmol (7 – 17%), β-eudesmol (17 – 26%) and γ-eudesmol (9 – 18%). L. grandiflorum gave an oil which from a coastal location contained up to 50% of α-, β- and γ-eudesmol and from inland locations ca. 5% α-, β- and γ-eudesmol. There is a range of oil compositions within L. liversidgei, varying from oils that are high in citronellal (ca. 44%) and contain virtually no neral/geranial (the more common variety), to oils that contain very little citronellal and high amounts of neral (20%) and geranial (35%). The oil of L. petersonii was found to occur in chemical varieties, with much variation in most of them. Variety 1 contained aldehydes, ranging from high citronellal and low neral/geranial to low citronellal and high neral/geranial. Two oil chemotypes, comprising mainly hydrocarbons, were identified. One chemotype, corresponding to Penfolds ‘variety A’, contained mainly monoterpenes, while a newly discovered chemotype contained mainly sesquiterpenes, with either β-caryophyllene or globulol/viridiflorol/spathulenol as major components. The existence of a further chemotype, corresponding to Penfolds ‘variety B’, containing geranyl acetate (21 – 38%) and geraniol (21 – 29%), was also confirmed. A study of the cotyledon and seedling leaf volatiles of a form of L. petersonii, the parent of which was rich in citronellal and neral/geranial, showed that both cotyledons and seedling leaf volatiles consisted of only sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, being δ-elemene, bicycloelemene, β-elemene, germacrene-D and bicyclogermacrene. It was not until the seedling had 15 nodes (ca. 170 mm tall) that citronellal and neral/geranial were found in the leaves above the fifth node. Leptospermum rotundifolium produced an oil in which the principal components were α-pinene (16 – 25%) and 1,8-cineole (21 – 28%). The oil from L. wooroonooran contained comparable amounts of mono- and sesquiterpenes, the main monoterpenes being α-pinene (4 – 11%), β-pinene (4 – 9%), sabinene (9 – 19%), β-caryophyllene (5 – 7%) and humulene (11 – 20%). Copyright

Probable long distance dispersal of Leptinella plumosa Hook.f. to Heard Island: habitat, status and discussion of its arrival

During the 2003–2004 austral summer the number of vascular plant species recorded from Heard Island rose from 11 to 12 with the discovery of one small plant of Leptinella plumosa Hook.f. (Asteraceae), an indigenous subantarctic species. It is described and its habitat, likely status and possible means of arrival on the island are discussed. We conclude that the species probably arrived by natural means with a seabird as its most likely dispersal vector. The life history and biology of L. plumosa indicates its likely persistence on Heard Island.

Taxonomic significance of flavonoid variation in temperate species of Nothofagus

Forty-two flavonoids and a stilbene (pinosylvin) were identified in the leaf exudates of 11 temperate species of Nothofagus from South America, Australia and New Zealand. The flavonoid profiles demonstrate significant taxonomic value at the subgeneric level. Most species of subgenus Fuscospora are characterized by the presence of pinosylvin, galangin and galangin methyl ethers. Kaempferol-type flavonols are abundant in subgenus Lophozonia while these flavonols are largely absent from species of subgenus Fuscospora. The flavonoid patterns are largely in agreement with a recent subgeneric classification of Nothofagus.

Comparative morphology of Anodopetalum (Cunoniaceae)

The vegetative and floral morphology of the Tasmanian endemic Anodopetalum biglandulosum is reexamined and illustrated. A detailed study of herbarium and fresh material identified a number of characters that have, in the past, been misinterpreted. The subsidiary cell arrangement around the stomates is brachyparacytic, and not anomocytic; the petals are shown to be notched, and not entire; the fruit is a weakly lignified, septicidally dehiscent capsule, not a berry, and the pollen is dicolporate, not tricolporate as has been previously reported. The two- and three-flowered inflorescences and solitary flowers are interpreted as a reduced cyme, while the leaf is interpreted as a unifoliolate compound leaf. The vegetative and floral morphology in Anodopetalum is compared with the closely related genera Schizomeria, Platylophus and Ceratopetalum. Features including notched/fringed petals, dicolporate pollen with a discontinuous (heterogeneous) tectum and weakly heterogeneous wood rays provide support for interpreting Anodopetalum, Schizomeria, Platylophus and Ceratopetalum as a monophyletic group. Anodopetalum differs from these genera in its strongly dehiscent fruits and winged seeds.

The Systematic and Biogeographical Relationships of Ceratopetalum (Cunoniaceae) in Australia and New Guinea

We describe here the vegetative and floral morphology of the Australian and New Guinean species of Ceratopetalum. Stipule and stamen morphology are shown to be extremely variable in Ceratopetalum, and new systematic characters are identified. Nine species are recognized, including two new species, C. hylandii and C. iugumensis, from northeastern Australia, and C. tetrapterum is reinstated for material from New Guinea. Ceratopetalum gummiferum possesses a large number of unique characters for the genus, including petally, elliptical cotyledons, and hairs on stamen filaments. A phylogenetic analysis using 14 morphological characters showed that C. gummiferum is sister to all other species in the genus. The analysis also identified two clades in northeastern Australia. The C. corymbosum clade (C. corymbosum, C. macrophyllum, and C. iugumensis) is defined by large lanceate stipules and a well‐developed composite intersecondary vein, while the C. succirubrum clade (C. succirubrum, C. hylandii, and C. tetrapterum) share 4‐merous flowers with a strigose indumentum on the adaxial surface of the sepals. Ceratopetalum tetrapterum from New Guinea has been considered conspecific with C. succirubrum, although this study shows that it is a distinct taxon closely related to C. succirubrum and C. hylandii. The six species in northeastern Australia, with the exception of C. succirubrum, are restricted to discrete high‐altitude montane habitats that are interpreted as Pleistocene refugia, which persisted during the Last Glacial. The present distribution of Ceratopetalum species in northeastern Australia probably results from relatively recent Pleistocene climate changes superimposed over much older patterns of speciation within the genus.

Macrofossil evidence of early sporophyte stages of a new genus of water fern Tecaropteris (Ceratopteridoideae: Pteridaceae) from the Paleogene Redbank Plains Formation, southeast Queensland, Australia

Rozefelds, A.C., Dettmann, M.E., Clifford, H.T. & Lewis, D., August 2015. Macrofossil evidence of early sporophyte stages of a new genus of water fern Tecaropteris (Ceratopteridoideae: Pteridaceae) from the Paleogene Redbank Plains Formation, southeast Queensland, Australia. Alcheringa 39,. ISSN 0311-5518. Water fern foliage is described from the Paleogene Redbank Plains Formation at Dinmore in southeast Queensland. The material, which is based upon leaf impressions, records early sporophyte growth stages. The specimens occur at discrete levels in clay pits at Dinmore, and the different leaf stages present suggest that they represent colonies of young submerged plants, mats of floating leaves, or a mixed assemblage of both. The leaf material closely matches the range of variation evident in young sporophytes of Ceratopteris Brongn., but in the complete absence of Cenozoic fossils of the spore genus Magnastriatites Germeraad, Hopping & Muller emend. Dettmann & Clifford from mainland Australia, which are the fossil spores of this genus, it is referred to a new genus, Tecaropteris. The record of ceratopterid-like ferns adds significantly to our limited knowledge of Cenozoic freshwater plants from Australia. The geoheritage significance of sites, such as Dinmore, is discussed briefly. Andrew C. Rozefelds [andrew.rozefelds@qm.qld.gov.au], Queensland Museum GPO Box 3300, South Brisbane, 4101, Queensland, Australia and School of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, 4072, Queensland, Australia; Mary Dettmann [mary.dettmann@qm.qld.gov.au], H. Trevor Clifford [trevor.clifford@qm.qld.gov.au] and Debra Lewis [debra.lewis@qm.qld.gov.au], Queensland Museum, GPO Box 3300, South Brisbane, 4101, Queensland, Australia.

Cenozoic Elaeocarpus (Elaeocarpaceae) fruits from Australia

Fossil Elaeocarpus species with spherical fruits are redescribed and compared with extant species. Information on the distribution of E. mackayi (F. Muell.) Kirchheimer and E. spackmaniorum Rozefelds is provided. Additional notes on the morphology of E. spackmaniorum Rozefelds are also included; and collections from Guildford, in Victoria, are considered conspecific. Elaeocarpus occultus sp. nov. is described from the Haddon deep leads in Victoria; it has a spherical inner mesocarp, bastionate ornamentation, foraminae in the mesocarp wall and mesosutural ridges, which represent a combination of characters unique within extant Australian Elaeocarpus species. The fossil fruit record of Elaeocarpus is systematically significant because it demonstrates that the genus was morphologically diverse by the Miocene in Australia. Biogeographically, the genus also had a different, or more widespread distribution in Australia during the Cenozoic.

A new species and comparative morphology of Vesselowskya (Cunoniaceae)

The vegetative and reproductive morphology of Vesselowskya Pampanini, southern marara, is described and illustrated in detail. The variation within V. rubifolia (F.Muell.) Pampanini sens. lat. is shown to be greater than has previously been recognised, with the differences identified supporting the recognition of a new segregate species, V. venusta Rozefelds, R.W.Barnes and Pellow sp. nov. Vesselowskya venusta occurs in the Barrington Tops Plateau of New South Wales and differs from V. rubifolia in possessing hairs on the abaxial surface of the sepals and lacking both a prominent distal connective protrusion on the anthers and colleters at the base of the stipules. The two Vesselowskya species are dioecious with a vestigial ovary in staminate flowers and reduced stamens in pistillate flowers. Dioecy is more pronounced in Vesselowskya, than in some Weinmannia species, and in both genera is expressed through reduction in the size of the ovaries in staminate flowers, and stamens in pistillate flowers. Vesselowskya shares with the other genera in the tribe Cunonieae (Pancheria, Weinmannia and Cunonia), a central column in the fruits, and Cunonia-type stipules, but differs from these genera in having valvate aestivation, digitate leaves, craspedodromous secondary venation with secondary veins terminating at a tooth, tuft domatia along the midrib, adaxial epidermal cells with strongly sinuous cell walls and the absence of hydathodes.

Tupilakosaur-like vertebrae in Bothriceps australis, an Australian brachyopid stereospondyl

ABSTRACT A new locality near the Permo-Triassic boundary in Tasmania, Australia, has yielded a number of specimens of the brachyopid stereospondyl, Bothriceps australis, whose provenance was unknown previously. An articulated diplospondylous vertebral column of a morphology typical only of the Tupilakosauridae was found at the same locality. Although the Brachyopidae and Tupilakosauridae have skulls of similar shape, most authors have regarded them as not closely related. Phylogenetic analysis confirms that the Brachyopidae and Tupilakosauridae are both members of the Stereospondyli but are not closely related, despite the remarkable similarity of the Bothriceps and tupilakosaur vertebral columns.

Chemistry of the Australian Gymnosperms. Part IX. The Leaf Oils of the Australian Members of the Genus Callitris (Cupressaceae)

Abstract The leaf oils of the 18 species and four subspecies of the genus Callitris endemic to Australia have been investigated by a combination of GC and GC/MS. All taxa produced oils in poor to moderate yields. Callitris baileyi produced a leaf oil in which α-pinene and limonene together, contributed the majority of the oil, while in Callitris canescens methyl citronellate also made significant contributions to the oil. In C. columellaris, limonene was the principal component, contributing up to 78% of the oil. Callitris drummondii gave a leaf oil which showed two chemical varieties. The samples from Western Australia contained large amounts of α-pinene (67–69%), while the sample from South Australia contained limonene (10.9%), bornyl acetate (24.2%) and geranyl acetate (14.9%) as significant components. In C. endlicheri the main components were limonene, α-pinene and bornyl acetate. Limonene and α-pinene were the principal components of the leaf oil of C. glaucophylla. Callitris gracilis ssp. gracilis gave an oil in which the principal components were α-pinene, myrcene and limonene, while in ssp. murrayensis a-pinene was the principal component. α-Pinene and limonene were the principal components of C. intratropica and C. macleayana. Callitris muelleri was found in two chemical forms, one monoterpenoid and one sesquiterpenoid, with either a-pinene or spathulenol being the principal component. In C. oblonga, which consists of three subspecies, α-pinene was the main component. In C. preissii the major components were α-pinene, myrcene, limonene and bornyl acetate. Callitris rhomboidea was distinguished from the vast majority of other Callitris species by containing significant amounts of neryl acetate, geranyl acetate and citronellyl acetate. Callitris roei contained significant amounts of sesquiterpenes in its leaf oil, with (E)-nerolidol being the principal component. In C. tuberculata α-pinene and limonene were the major components. α-Pinene, limonene and camphor were the major components in the leaf oil of C. verrucosa, while in Callitris sp. (Emerald Falls PI. Forster +PIF26357) α-pinene and limonene were the principal components with significant amounts of α-fenchyl acetate. The leaf oil of the putative introgressed populations of C. columellaris—C. verrucosa had α-pinene (25–46%), myrcene (9–19%), limonene (14–24%), α-fenchyl acetate (8–13%) and bornyl acetate (4–13%) as the most significant components. The oil does provide similarities to the oils of both putative parent species in that it contains camphor (1–3%), which is characteristic of C. verrucosa and bornyl acetate (2–13%) characteristic of C. glaucophylla.