Hauhau Tree

[Una Smith]

On Thu, 10 Feb 2000, P. F. Stevens wrote:

>I think that  phloem fibers occur in most of Malvales in the broad sense -
>i.e. including Thymeleaceae, for example, where they can be used for making
>paper - etc.  A synapomorphy at some pretty high level there.  They are
>very common in Malvaceae s.l. (incl. Tiliaceae).

I did a cladistic analysis of morphological characters for all families
of Malvales and outgroups, for a BSA paper on Oceanopapaver.  The phloem
fibers characteristic of bast were indeed a synapomorphy of Malvales as
most recently identified in molecular cladistic analyses.  (No, my paper
is not in press yet.)

        Una Smith               una.smith at yale.edu

        Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
        Yale University
        New Haven, CT  06520-8106

        http://pantheon.yale.edu/~una/