BEAMAN, REED S. University of Florida Herbarium, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, U.S.A. - Phylogeny of Elatostema (Urticaceae) from Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, and the relationship between distribution and endemicity to environmental characteristics.
Over 500 species have been published in the pan-tropical genus
Elatostema Forst. (Urticaceae). This paper focuses on
phylogenetic relationships within small clades of closely related
species of Elatostema, particularly high elevation endemic
species on Mount Kinabalu on the island of Borneo and species in
neighboring mountain floras. Species distributions have been mapped
in detail for Mount Kinabalu and it is therefore possible to relate
the phylogeny to spatial data contained in the Kinabalu GIS
(Geographical Information System), such as elevation, slope, aspect
and insolation as well as geological and ecological data extracted
from a Landsat TM image. Mount Kinabalu is a granitic pluton of
recent geological origin, and many of its plant communities sort out
not just by elevation, but also due to ultramafic outcrops occurring
at various elevations. Understanding the relationship between
phylogeny, geomorphology, and endemism is not just desirable for
Elatostema. Ultramafic outcrops on Kinabalu have high levels of
endemicity in many taxonomic groups.
Key words: Elatostema, endemism, GIS, Kinabalu, phylogeny, ultramafic, Urticaceae