An extensive sequence comparison of the chloroplast ndhF gene from all major clades of the largest flowering plant family (Asteraceae) shows that this gene provides approximately 3 times more phylogenetic information than rbcL. This is because it is substantially longer and evolves twice as fast. The 5' region (1380 bp) of ndhF is very different from the 3' region (855 bp) and is similar to rbc...

Pollen limitation of plant reproduction occurs in many plant species, particularly those in fragmented habitat; however, causes of pollen limitation are often unknown. We investigated the relationship between pollen limitation and pollinator visitation in the purple coneflower, Echinacea angustifolia (Asteraceae), which grows in the extremely fragmented tall grass prairie of North America. Prev...

The aerial parts of Carthamus lanatus (Asteraceae) afforded four new oxygenated bisabolane fucosides, 10-hydroperoxy-bisabola-2,11-diene 7-O-beta-D-fucopyranoside, 11-hydro-peroxy-bisabola-2,9-diene 7-O-beta-D-fucopyranoside, 10-hydroxy-bisabola-2,11-diene 7-O-beta-D-fucopyranoside and 11-hydroxy-bisabola-2,9-diene 7-O-beta-D-fucopyranoside together with the known compounds a-bisabolol beta-D-f...

In the course of a detailed molecular study of the tribe Gochnatieae (Compositae: Gochnatioideae) it became apparent that the genus Gochnatia (sensu Cabrera) was not monophyletic but composed of a number of morphologically, geographically, and molecularly distinct clades. All but one of these clades had previously been recognized at the generic or sectional level and therefore had a name that c...

Two new species of the recently revised genus Oparanthus (Asteraceae, Subtribe Coreopsidinae) were discovered during the National Tropical Botanical Garden/Smithsonian Institution 1997 expedition to the Marquesas Islands. Oparanthus woodii W. L. Wagner & Lorence, sp. nov. is known from a single population on the island of Nuku Hiva, and Oparanthus tiva W. L. Wagner & Lorence, sp. nov. is known ...

The enigmatic monospecific Bishopanthus of the tribe Liabeae (Compostiae/Asteraceae) has never been fully understood. It has not been possible to examine it in detail since it was described, because most of the type material was destroyed shortly after it arrived at the US National Herbarium, the morphology is insufficient to assign it to a subtribe, and the small amount of leaf material that r...

Species of the genus Fleischmannia from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay are reviewed, and keys are provided that cover the species in each country. New taxa described are Fleischmannia hatschbachii, Fleischmannia matogrosensis, Fleischmannia microstemon var. paniculata from Brazil, Fleischmannia hassleri from Paraguay and Fleischmannia neei and Fleischmannia steinbachii from Bolivia, an...