Hauhau synapomorphy?

[Fred Rickson]

Una,

Since the vascular bundles of a great number of plants possess phloem
(bast) fibers as a cap, what were the synapomorphic features that separated
the Malvales from another Order?  Or am I misreading the point?  Also, just
to muddy things a bit more, not all fibers lying adjacent to the primary
phloem are bast, as some differentiate from the inner cortical layers and
are, therefore, cortical fibers.....sorry, just being a plant anatomist.

Best,

Fred


----------
> From: Una Smith <una.smith at YALE.EDU>
> To: TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG
> Subject: Re: Hauhau Tree
> Date: Thursday, February 10, 2000 3:17 PM
>
> 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/