Species diversity driven by morphological and ecological disparity: a case study of comparative seed morphology and anatomy across a large monocot order
Benedict, John C. ; Smith, Selena Y. ; Specht, Chelsea D. ; Collinson, Margaret E. ; Leong-Škorničková, Jana ; Parkinson, Dilworth Y. ; Marone, Federica
In: AoB PLANTS, 2016, vol. 8, no. 1, p. -
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- The banana and ginger group, order Zingiberales, comprises of exceptionally diverse, primarily tropical, plants. Within Zingiberales, the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) is unique in being not only the most species-rich but also the most disparate in terms of their morphology and anatomy, and the only group with a substantial number of species in temperate environments. Multiple radiations into temperate habitats were found to not be driven by morphological change, but instead may point to a genetic plasticity in the family that provided opportunities for speciation events not found anywhere else in the order.