Shift of fleshy fruited species along elevation: temperature, canopy coverage, phylogeny and origin

High species diversity in fleshy-fruited tropical understory plants.

Key innovations may increase the number of taxa in a clade that possesses the proposed innovation in comparison to its sister group that lacks the trait through either increased speciation or reduced extinction rates. Comparing sister clades across several independent lineages provides statistical support that the trait has increased species diversity. Previous studies have indicated that there...

Do Small Canopy Gaps Created by Japanese Black Bears Facilitate Fruiting of Fleshy-Fruited Plants?

Japanese black bears often break branches when climbing trees and feeding on fruit in canopies, thereby creating small canopy gaps. However, the role of black bear-created canopy gaps has not been evaluated in the context of multiple forest dynamics. Our hypothesis was that small canopy gaps created by black bears improve light conditions, which facilitates fruiting of adult fleshy-fruited plan...

Seed dispersal of fleshy-fruited environmental weeds in New Zealand

Fruit-eating animals play a key role in spreading non-native environmental weeds, via seed ingestion and subsequent dispersal. We reviewed available information on dispersal of fleshy-fruited environmental weeds in New Zealand. We found almost a third (32.9%) of 295 environmental weed species in New Zealand have fleshy fruits adapted for internal dispersal by animals. Fruiting phenology differs...

Unpaved road verges as hotspots of fleshy-fruited shrub recruitment and establishment

Molecular phylogeny and morphology of four Ramularia species from Iran along with a checklist of ramularia-like taxa

The genus Ramularia includes important plant pathogens with worldwide distribution, commonly associated with leaf spot diseases on a broad range of plant hosts. Although these fungi are common in Iran, most of the species found to date have been identified on the basis of morphological characteristics, and DNA data are available for limited number of them. During our investigation of fungi asso...