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  Biogeography of Arisaema
From: tindomul1of9 at yahoo.com (Tindomul Er-Murazor) on 2007.10.11 at 18:28:49(16459)
Hello,

I am curious if anyone knows or can anyone tell me how to find out the normal/natural distribution of Arisaema sp. in the world? Thank you.

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From: ju-bo at msn.com (Julius Boos) on 2007.10.12 at 22:14:27(16470)
From: bogus@does.not.exist.com ()
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:36:43 -0000
Subject: No subject
Message-ID:

Dear Tindomul,

According to the best available literature, which is the book "The Genera of
Araceae", the genus Arisema has a VERY wide area of distribution. The
genus is represented in --"eastern and N. eastern North America, nothhern
Mexico, tropical east and northeast Africa, Arabian Peninsula, temperate
east Asia, tropical south, southeast and east Asia, and the Malay
Archipelago!
I hope that this helps.

Good Growing,

Julius

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From: botanist at malesiana.com (Peter Boyce) on 2007.10.12 at 23:24:18(16475)
North America and N. Mexico, montane central and east subsaharan tropical Africa, southern Arabian Peninsular, southern Iran, southern Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, transhimalaya (secondary centre), S China (primary centre); Japan (secondary centre); Korean Peninsular, Indo-China (mainly the montane parts with N. Vietnam an extension of the SW Chinese biome), Malesia as far east as Philippines.

Peter

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From: tindomul1of9 at yahoo.com (Tindomul Er-Murazor) on 2007.10.14 at 19:26:29(16491)
Thank you both.
So I am to assume that the genus spread from China possibly before the break up the continents (pangea or Eurasia/Laurasia). Interesting that there are two secondary centers of origin. Thanks again!!!

Message: 2

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From: botanist at malesiana.com (Peter Boyce) on 2007.10.15 at 08:29:47(16499)
In all probablility the ancestor of Arisaema and Pinellia was transpangaen and the enormous Asian diversification happened post India slamming into Asia to push up the Hmalaya, with the extant species in Japan are derived from ancestral stocks standed on Japan when the seaway between Japan and mainland Asia flooded.

The centres are not definite known centres of origin, they are centres of modern diversity... diversity in a region doesn't necessarily mean that the taxa there are autocthanous (although they often are); it may be the result of rapid recent evolution as seems to be the case with Schismatoglottis and Alocasia in Borneo.

To my mind the most interesting Arisaema are those in Africa and the Arabian gulf; the former seem to be isolates from a much once greater range of diversity that probably underwent extensive extictions as much of the lowland forest dried out and the mesophytic herbs retreated with the forest into everwet montane areas. Interesting is that the exteant African taxa are seemilgly most closely related to species from southern Indian. On the other hand the Arabian Gulf species are a mix of otherwise African isolates (A. bottae - elsewhere in the mountains of Somalia) and fragments of once greater ranges of otherwise Chinese species (A. flavum).

Peter

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