Abstract Detail

Getting everyone involved: Saving the seaside alder

DUNN, MICHAEL [1].

The fossil record of the Seaside Alder, and Alnus subgenus Clethropsis.

Alnus maritima (Seaside Alder) may have been widespread across North America once, but now is divided into three disjunct subspecies in Oklahoma, Georgia, and Delaware: A. maritima subsp oklahomensis, A. maritima subsp georgiensis, and A. maritima subsp maritima respectively. Arguably, A. maritima subsp oklahomensis is ancestral to the other two populations. Phenologically, A. maritima is isolated from all other North American alders by flowering in autumn rather than spring, but is united into the sub-genus Clethropsis with the disjunct species A. nitida (Himalayan Alder) from the temperate Himalayas of southeast Asia, and A. formosana (Formosan Alder) from Taiwan, based primarily on autumn flowering. Current top-down approaches have been unsuccessful in reconstructing the bio-geographical history of these disjunct species and subspecies. However, all taxa in sub-genus Clethropsis share leaf characteristics in that the leaves are all relatively narrow with small upturned teeth. Those leaf characters combined with the abundant fossil record of Alnus throughout the Cenozoic of the Northern Hemisphere suggests that a bottom-up approach may be useful in deciphering the past distribution of the Seaside Alder. This contribution to the Seaside Alder Symposium proposes to do just that by reviewing the fossil record of Alnus, specifically focusing on subgenus Clethropsis leaves.

1 - CAMERON UNIVERSITY, 2800 Gore Blvd, LAWTON, OK, 73505, USA

Keywords:
Alnus subgenus Clethropsis
Cenozoic
seaside alder.

Presentation Type: Symposium Presentation
Session: SY3, Getting everyone involved: Saving the seaside alder
Location: Fort Worth Ballroom 2/Omni Hotel
Date: Tuesday, June 27th, 2017
Time: 8:45 AM
Number: SY3002
Abstract ID:153
Candidate for Awards:None