Taxa

• Craspedia
• Epilobium
• Myosotis
  
• Nothofagus
• Ourisia
• Pachycladon
• Pittosporum
• Plantago
  
• Ranunculus
• Tragopogon
• Veronica
• Wahlenbergia
  

Ranunculus

Ranunculus L. (buttercup) is a genus of plants with a worldwide distribution, numbering about 500 species. The habitats of the species range from aquatic, to semi-arid mountain screes. Typically herbaceous, Ranunculus features distinctive yellow, red, orange or white flowers with unfused parts showing little specialisation.

The cosmopolitan distribution of Ranunculus has made it an internationally popular study subject for plant dispersal and speciation (Schönswetter et al., 2006, Kirchner et al., 2003). Ranunculus species with alpine distributions can also be found in most temperate zones of the world.

In the Southern Alps of New Zealand there are 17 endemic species of Ranunculus. The extensive period of mountain building during the mid- to late-Pleistocene provided a range of novel and unoccupied habitats available for speciation. In this way, the Pleistocene orogeny acted as a “species pump”, driving the radiation of the New Zealand alpine Ranunculus into the large variety of species we see today.

The study of these native New Zealand plants using molecular and morphological methods is relevant to the following themes:

• The question of species delimitation
• Impact of climate change on distribution and diversity
• Evolutionary significance of hybridisation and polyploidy
• Ecological drivers of radiation
• Reconstructing the evolutionary history of radiations

People

Richard Carter – Masters’ student, polyploidy and geographical information systems
Carlos Lehnebach – Postdoc, morphological analysis of New Zealand and South American Ranunculus
Peter Lockhart – Professor of Molecular Evolution, Massey University
Trish McLenachan

– Laboratory Manager
Morore Piripi– Research Assistant, DNA fingerprinting and analysis

References based on Morphological Studies

1. Garnock-Jones (1988) 1013-1039, in Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand, volume IV
2. Fisher (1965), The alpine Ranunculi of New Zealand

References based on molecular studies

1. Schönswetter et al. (2006), Molecular Ecology 15(3) 709-720
2. Hörandl et al. (2005), Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 36(2) 305-327
3. Paun et al. (2005), Taxon 54(4) 911-930
4. Schönswetter et al. (2004), Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 81(2) 183-195
5. Kirchner et al. (2003), Conservation Biology 17(2) 401-410
6. Lockhart et al. (2001), Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 88(3) 458-477