Search

Traits with intuitive names, a clear scope and explicit description are essential for all trait databases. The lack of unified, comprehensive, and machine-readable plant trait definitions limits the utility of trait databases, including reanalysis of data from a single database, or analyses that integrate data across multiple databases. Both can only occur if researchers are confident the trait concepts are consistent within and across sources. Here we describe the AusTraits Plant Dictionary (APD), a new data source of terms that extends the trait definitions included in a recent trait database, AusTraits. The development process of the APD included three steps: review and formalisation of the scope of each trait and the accompanying trait description; addition of trait metadata; and publication in both human and machine-readable forms. Trait definitions include keywords, references, and links to related trait concepts in other databases, enabling integration of AusTraits with other sources. The APD will both improve the usability of AusTraits and foster the integration of trait data across global and regional plant trait databases.

Traits with intuitive names, a clear scope and explicit description are essential for all trait databases. The lack of unified, comprehensive, and machine-readable plant trait definitions limits the utility of trait databases, including reanalysis of data from a single database, or analyses that integrate data across multiple databases. Both can only occur if researchers are confident the trait concepts are consistent within and across sources. Here we describe the AusTraits Plant Dictionary (APD), a new data source of terms that extends the trait definitions included in a recent trait database, AusTraits. The development process of the APD included three steps: review and formalisation of the scope of each trait and the accompanying trait description; addition of trait metadata; and publication in both human and machine-readable forms. Trait definitions include keywords, references, and links to related trait concepts in other databases, enabling integration of AusTraits with other sources. The APD will both improve the usability of AusTraits and foster the integration of trait data across global and regional plant trait databases.

The spectacular diversity of sclerophyll plants in the Cape Floristic Region in South Africa and Australia's Southwest Floristic Region has been attributed to either explosive radiation on infertile soils under fire-prone, summer-dry climates or sustained accretion of species under inferred stable climate regimes. However, the very poor fossil record of these regions has made these ideas difficult to test. Here, we reconstruct ecological-scale plant species richness from an exceptionally well-preserved fossil flora. We show that a hyperdiverse sclerophyll flora existed under high-rainfall, summer-wet climates in the Early Pleistocene in southeastern Australia. The sclerophyll flora of this region must, therefore, have suffered subsequent extinctions to result in its current relatively low diversity. This regional loss of sclerophyll diversity occurred at the same time as a loss of rainforest diversity and cannot be explained by ecological substitution of species of one ecological type by another type. We show that sclerophyll hyperdiversity has developed in distinctly non-Mediterranean climates, and this diversity is, therefore, more likely a response to long-term climate stability. Climate stability may have both reduced the intensity of extinctions associated with the Pleistocene climate cycles and promoted the accumulation of species richness by encouraging genetic divergence between populations and discouraging plant dispersal.

Ubiquitous, large diameter pores have not previously been adequately demonstrated to occur in leaf cuticles. Here we show conclusively that such structures occur in Eidothea zoexylocarya, a rainforest tree species of Proteaceae restricted to the Australian Wet Tropics. The pores are abundant, large-diameter apertures (∼1 lm), that extend perpendicularly most of the way through the cuticle from the inside. They occur on both sides of the leaf, but are absent from the cuticle associated with stomatal complexes on the abaxial side. No such pores were found in any other species, including the only other species of Eidothea, E. hardeniana from New South Wales, and other species that have previously been purported to possess cuticular pores. To determine whether these pores made the cuticles more leaky to water vapor, we measured astomatous cuticular conductances to water vapor for E. zoexylocarya and seven other Proteaceae species of the Wet Tropics. Cuticular conductance for E. zoexylocarya was relatively low, indicating that the prominent pores do not increase conductance. The function of the pores is currently obscure, but the presence of both pores and an adaxial hypodermis in E. zoexylocarya but not E. hardeniana suggests evolution in response to greater environmental stresses in the tropics.

Kerguelen is now treeless but forest grew there during the Tertiary. Tertiary fossil wood is common there and was recorded and described by 19th Century workers. Recently discovered wood from a Pleistocene moraine shows that trees persisted into the Quaternary. A xylological study helps clarify the history and palaeoecology of the woody vegetation on Kerguelen.

Analysis of large open-pollinated and controlled-cross field trials of Eucalyptus globulus ssp. globulus show quantitative genetic independence of the times of first flowering and the abrupt change in leaf form . The onset of each of these critical developmental events is under moderate to strong additive genetic control in this taxon, with individual narrow-sense heritabilities of 0.4-0.6 and 0.2-0.9 respectively, and little nonadditive genetic control. This strong additive genetic control and the independence of these processes provide the genetic environment for rapid heterochronic microevolution.

A new species of Nothofagus, N. pachyphylla, is proposed based on fossils from Early Pleistocene sediments at Regatta Point, western Tasmania. This extinct species occurred for some time with its sister species, N. cunninghamii, which is still extant in Tasmania. The fossil leaves of N. cunninghamii in the Regatta Point sediments are all very small and are only consistent with leaves from cold climate extant populations of this species. The fossil leaves of other taxa in these sediments are also mostly at the small (and cool climate) end of the range of the leaves of their extant relatives. These data provide corroborating evidence for floristically based inferences of colder than modern palaeoclimates for this fossil site. The co-occurrence of small and large leaved sister species is paralleled in a number of modern Tasmanian rainforest genera.

The first Fossil capsule of Eucryphia, E. reticulata R.W.Barnes and G.J.Jord. sp. nov., is described from Lea River (Early Oligocene), and, like capsules of the two extant South American species or E. glutinosa (Poepp. et Endl.) Baill. and E. cordifolia Cav., is large and has a relatively large number of valves. The capsule occurs with a Eucryphia leaf macrofossil that was probably a leaflet from a compound leaf as it is highly falcate. The leaflet may be derived from the same parent plant as E. reticulata but in the absence of an organic connection it is described as a new species, E. leaensis R.W. Barnes and G.J. Jord. sp. nov. Additional leaf macrofossil specimens of E. aberensis R.S. Hill from the type locality (Loch Aber; Middle - Late Eocene) and a new locality record for the species, Little Rapid River (Early Oligocene), indicate that the species had compound leaves formed by serrate and entire margin leaflets. Another incomplete Eucryphia capsule occurs at Little Rapid River (Early Oligocene) but it is too poorly preserved to assign it to an extant or extinct species. It may be derived from the same parent plant as E. aberensis, with which it occurs, but cannot be confirmed as there is no organic connection. A new leaf macrofossil with serrate margins, E. mucronata R.W. Barnes and G.J. Jord. sp. nov., is also described from? Latest Eocene - Early Oligocene sediments at Wilson's Creek, central Tasmania. Leaf macrofossils previously assigned to E. aff. milliganii from Early Pleistocene sediments at Regatta Point in western Tasmania are shown to be conspecific with the two extant Tasmanian species, E. lucida (Labill.) Baill. and E. milliganii Hook.f. ssp. milliganii on the basis of foliar hair distribution patterns and density. The oldest fossil Eucryphia species, E. falcata R.S. Hill (Lake Bungarby; Late Paleocene), had compound leaves formed by leaflets with serrate margins, which is possibly the plesiomorphic condition for all Cunoniaceae genera. Within Eucr

About ten taxa of Proteaceae are known from the Early Eocene in Tasmania, one from a Late Eocene site, 22 from four Early Oligocene sites, one from a Late Oligocene/Early Miocene site, 12 or 13 from two Early Pleistocene sites, and five or six from the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Most of the Tertiary fossils are of extinct species, but the extant species Lomatia fraxinifolia and Telopea truncata have been recorded from the Early Oligocene as well as apparent close relatives of the subalpine rainforest species Orites milliganii, and the sub-tropical rainforest species, O. excelsa. None of the Early Oligocene species are known from more than one site, implying very high regional diversity, and floristic differentiation among the sites. High diversity of Proteaceae at some sites may be associated with oligotrophic soils. There is no evidence of any of the modern species-rich scleromorphic groups of Proteaceae except Banksiinae. Scleromorphy was well established in Oriteae, Embothrieae and Banksiinae by the Early Oligocene. The Early Eocene fossils have very small stomata, sparsely distributed on the leaf, which may have been due to elevated atmospheric CO2. All extant Tasmanian genera and many extant species were present by the Early Pleistocene as well as some extinct species. The specific diversity within the region was probably higher than it is now. In order to resolve a nomenclatural problem with the genus Proteaciphyllum, Euproteaciphyllum G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, gen. nov. is proposed and this name is applied to 10 previously described species. The Tasmanian fossil taxa include three new records, and nine new species: Euproteaciphyllum brookerensis G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp. nov., and E. tasmanicum G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp. nov. from Early Eocene sediments; and Orites milliganoides G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp. nov., O. scleromorpha G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp. nov., E. papillosum G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp.

The Early Pleistocene Regatta Point sediments contain macrofossils that suggest that generic and specific rainforest diversity was higher in the region than it is today both locally and regionally, but the diversity was probably lower than it was for most of the Tertiary. The sediments contain extinct species of conifers and angiosperms which have closest living relatives in a wide range of environments, mainly wet forests of warmer areas than western Tasmania, but also relatively cool and dry areas. Simple models of climatically driven extinction explain these extinctions poorly. It is more likely that there was a wide range of causes of extinctions. New species, Acacia bulbosa, Rubus nebuloides, Quintinia tasmanensis, Oxylobium pungens, Laurophyllum australum and Myrtaceaephyllum pleistocenicum, are described.

Oligocene-Early Miocene macrofossils of parts of a fertile frond are assigned to the extant South American species Lophosoria quadripinnata (Gmel.)C.Chr. These macrofossils bear the dispersed spore species Cyatheacidites annulatus Cookson ex Potonie. This species has an extensive recorded history in the Southern Hemisphere, only recently retracting to its current range. This history suggests major episodes of expansion and extinction, with a double extinction occurring in Australia and Cenozoic introductions to the Kerguelen Islands and the Falkland Plateau that probably involved transoceanic dispersal. Cretaceous Lophosoria records may or may not include L. quadripinnata, but they probably included several species, especially in the southern South America-Antarctic Peninsula region, where other dispersed spore species of Cyatheacidites and the macrofossil species L. cupulatus are recognised. This species diversity probably collapsed during the Cretaceous, possibly due to angiosperm radiation. The Cenozoic record of C. annulatus in Australia appears to represent a radiation of L. quadripinnata, probably from South America.

The lengths of fossil leaves of Nothofagus cunninghamii, and of closely related fossil species from sediments older than the Middle Pleistocene showed greater variation than fossil leaves from younger sediments and extant leaves from modern sediment samples and forest floor litter. Leaf sizes of samples of the other two extant evergreen species of Nothofagus subgenus Lophozonia, N. moorei and N. menziesii, were no more variable than modern N. cunninghamii. Leaf lengths of modern and Middle-Late Pleistocene N. cunninghamii and of modern N. menziesii were more or less unimodal in distribution, whereas the leaves of N. moorei follow bimodal distributions, and leaves from the Early Pleistocene Regatta Point and the Oligocene Little Rapid River sediments tended to be bimodal and highly variable. Leaf lengths from the Oligo-Miocene Monpeelyata sediments were also highly variable, but the sample size was too small to determine if they follow bimodal distributions. The bimodality and high variability in the older sites are unlikely to have been due to taphonomic processes. Thus, within population variability appears to have declined during the Late Tertiary-Early Pleistocene, although the presence of cryptic species in the fossil record could also explain the results. Both a decline in variability within species, and the extinction of Nothofagus species, are consistent with a well documented Late Cainozoic decline in rainforest diversity in Tasmania. Log transformed leaf lengths of modern forest floor litter samples of N. cunninghamii were strongly correlated with climatic parameters, particularly summer temperature, suggesting that this parameter is a strong determinant of leaf size in N. cunninghamii. Changes in N. cunninghamii leaf lengths within Middle Pleistocene sediments were associated with floristic changes interpreted as transitions in glacial/interglacial cycles, but these changes were small compared with changes predicted from climatic correlation of extant samp

Kerguelen is now treeless but forest grew there during the Tertiary. Tertiary fossil wood is common there and was recorded and described by 19th Century workers. Recently discovered wood from a Pleistocene moraine shows that trees persisted into the Quaternary. A xylological study helps clarify the history and palaeoecology of the woody vegetation on Kerguelen.

Bandulskaia aestuaria gen. et sp. nov. is described from Early Eocene estuarine sediments in Tasmania. It is represented by a single, incomplete leaf, which displays a toothed margin and well-preserved cuticle. Despite the absence of teeth in over 2500 known species of fossil and extant Lauraceae, the fossil cuticle has a combination of traits that are lauraceous. These include the synapomorphy of stomata confined to small areoles, and also paracytic stomata with apparently embedded guard cells, simple, uniseriate trichomes with thickened, poral bases, slit-like stomatal apertures on the outer abaxial surface and persistent resin bodies. Leaf teeth could be a plesiomorphic trait in Lauraceae, as monimioid teeth occur throughout other lauralean families. However, the fossil teeth were evidently not glandular as in monimioid teeth, and thus are unlikely to be homologous with the teeth of other Laurales. Rather, the teeth are likely to have been apomorphic, having evolved in response to the physiological demands of the warm, wet, high latitude 'Greenhouse' environment.

Stumps of more than 365 tree and shrubs are preserved in growth position on the shores of Macquarie Harbour, western Tasmania. The most likely age is Last Interglacial or early Last Glacial. The in situ forest was almost monospecific Melaleuca (probably M. ericifolia) swamp forest, with one very large Nothofagus cunninghamii, occasional Acacia, interspersed with tussocks of Gahnia grandis. The Melaleuca stumps showed a more or less continuous size distribution, and tree rings suggested an age range from a few years to approximately 100 years or more. Similar vegetation occurs now in parts of lowland western and northern Tasmania, particularly in poorly drained, undisturbed, coastal sites. The composition of the in situ fossil forest differed markedly from previously recorded macrofossil and fossil palynomorph floras, suggesting that both of the latter included significant allochthonous components.

Fossil pollen and macrofossils of Epacridaceae are uncommon and are mainly known from Tasmania and other parts of south-eastern Australia. Most epacrids have generalised ericalean pollen although the pollen of some genera is distinctive. Ericalean pollen is known from the late Cretaceous. The first occurrence of Paripollis orchesis pollen, which is consistent with some extant Epacris species, probably means that Epacridaceae, and possibly the tribe Epacrideae, had differentiated by the Middle Eocene. The fossil record at present provides minimum ages of the first occurrences of major subfamilial taxa. Macrofossils of subfamily Richeoideae and of several morphotypes of the tribe Epacrideae are known from the Early Oligocene. Tribe Cosmelieae pollen and macrofossils are known from the Early Pleistocene, and are probably Sprengelia. The oldest Australasian fossils of tribe Styphelieae are leaves in latest Oligocene-Early Miocene parts of the Latrobe Valley coal. Endocarps identified as Epacridaceae from the Eocene of England need further investigation. Pollen of Monotoca, or a close relative, is known from the mid-Miocene. Possible Trochocarpa leaves occur in Late Oligocene/Early Miocene sediments, and fossil leaves indistinguishable from the extant Tasmanian rainforest species, T. gunnii and T. cunninghamii, are known from the Early Pleistocene in Tasmania.

Chapter Introduction: There is an excellent fossil record of ferns in Australia, and it provides an important source of information on the phylogeny and biogeography of living ferns. The most important elements of the fossil record are spores, sterile and fertile frond compressions and impressions, and the relatively rare but highly informative petrified remains, usually rhizomes and stems. Because ferns are such an ancient group of plants, much of the record cannot be applied directly to the extant flora. Although this causes problems in interpreting the fossil record, and affinities often remain unclear, the record relevant to living taxa is still imposing. Pteridophyte spores are well-preserved and frequently seen in a wide range of sediments and are of considerable taxonomic significance. Indeed, not only can spore wall ornamentation often be observed, ultrastructural features may also be visible. One limit to the taxonomic value of the spore record is the considerable convergence in spore morphology and anatomy in fossil and extant pteridophytes, especially ferns. The consequent problems with the identification of dispersed fossil spores are exacerbated by the frequent loss of the diagnostically important exospore. Fragments of vegetative fronds are comparatively uncommon in the fossil record. However, while these can sometimes be assigned to genera or families, identification is often impossible, because available characters such as frond shape and venation show considerable convergence. Conversely, fertile fronds tend to be much more useful, and those with in situ spores are among the most confidently and precisely identified of all plant fossils, as well as being useful in confirming or disproving the identity of dispersed fossil spores (e.g. Jordan et al., 1996). Tree fern stems and rhizomes are beautifully petrified under some special conditions that are still not fully understood and these can often be confidently identified. In this brief review we conce

Macro- and micro-fossil plants are described from Early to Middle Pleistocene sediments at Regatta Point, western Tasmania. The sediments are floristically and lithologically distinct from other sediments at the same site, and contain a precursor to modem subalpine vegetation. The sediments contain foliage characteristic of modem western Tasmanian subalpine and alpine rainforest species. Pollen and spores suggest the presence of open vegetation similar to modem subalpine heath and herbfield. A number of taxa are inconsistent with modern high altitude vegetation, which suggests re-assortment of plant associations during periods of climate change.

Oligocene-Early Miocene macrofossils of parts of a fertile frond are assigned to the extant South American species Lophosoria quadripinnata (Gmel.)C.Chr. These macrofossils bear the dispersed spore species Cyatheacidites annulatus Cookson ex Potonie. This species has an extensive recorded history in the Southern Hemisphere, only recently retracting to its current range. This history suggests major episodes of expansion and extinction, with a double extinction occurring in Australia and Cenozoic introductions to the Kerguelen Islands and the Falkland Plateau that probably involved transoceanic dispersal. Cretaceous Lophosoria records may or may not include L. quadripinnata, but they probably included several species, especially in the southern South America-Antarctic Peninsula region, where other dispersed spore species of Cyatheacidites and the macrofossil species L. cupulatus are recognised. This species diversity probably collapsed during the Cretaceous, possibly due to angiosperm radiation. The Cenozoic record of C. annulatus in Australia appears to represent a radiation of L. quadripinnata, probably from South America.

The Early Pleistocene Regatta Point sediments contain macrofossils that suggest that generic and specific rainforest diversity was higher in the region than it is today both locally and regionally, but the diversity was probably lower than it was for most of the Tertiary. The sediments contain extinct species of conifers and angiosperms which have closest living relatives in a wide range of environments, mainly wet forests of warmer areas than western Tasmania, but also relatively cool and dry areas. Simple models of climatically driven extinction explain these extinctions poorly. It is more likely that there was a wide range of causes of extinctions. New species, Acacia bulbosa, Rubus nebuloides, Quintinia tasmanensis, Oxylobium pungens, Laurophyllum australum and Myrtaceaephyllum pleistocenicum, are described.

Tasmania is a natural laboratory for investigating the evolutionary processes of the Quaternary. It is a large island lying 40-44 degrees S, which was repeatedly glaciated and linked to southeastern continental Australia during the Quaternary. Climate change promoted both the isolation of species in glacial refugia, and an exchange between Tasmanian and mainland floras. Eucalyptus is a complex and diverse genus, which has increased in abundance in Australia over the past 100 kyr, probably in response to higher fire frequency. Morphological evidence suggests that gene flow may have occurred between many eucalypt species after changes in their distribution during the Quaternary. This paper summarizes recent genetic evidence for migration and introgressive hybridization in Tasmanian Eucalyptus. Maternally inherited chloroplast DNA reveals a long-term persistence of eucalypts in southeastern Tasmanian refugia, coupled with introgressive hybridization involving many species. Detailed analysis of the widespread species Eucalyptus globulus suggests that migration from mainland Australia was followed by introgression involving a rare Tasmanian endemic. The data support the hypothesis that changes in distribution of interfertile species during the Quaternary have promoted reticulate evolution in Eucalyptus.

The variation in selected leaf morphological traits was examined across the geographic ranges of two Tasmanian rainforest species, Tasmannia lanceolata (Poiret) A.C.Smith and Eucryphia milliganii Hook.f. Comparisons of field- and glasshouse-grown plants for both species showed that there is strong genetic control of all the morphological characters measured. Two distinct morphotypes, occupying similar areas of Tasmania, were identified in each species. The geographic boundary between the morphotypes is similar in both species and runs more or less east-west, separating each species into northern and southern forms. Southern E. milliganii differs from the northern form in having ovate leaves with dense marginal trichomes and a pubescent abaxial leaf lamina. A new sub-species, E. milliganii ssp. pubescens, is described to encompass this intra-specific variation in southern Tasmania. Southern T. lanceolata has encrypted stomata, contrasting with the superficial stomata of the northern form, but is not considered sufficiently different to warrant separate taxonomic status. The boundary is difficult to explain in terms of modern environmental factors. A past period of significantly different climate from the present, perhaps combined with anthropogenic fire regimes, may have enabled allopatric differentiation within each species.

Analysis of large open-pollinated and controlled-cross field trials of Eucalyptus globulus ssp. globulus show quantitative genetic independence of the times of first flowering and the abrupt change in leaf form . The onset of each of these critical developmental events is under moderate to strong additive genetic control in this taxon, with individual narrow-sense heritabilities of 0.4-0.6 and 0.2-0.9 respectively, and little nonadditive genetic control. This strong additive genetic control and the independence of these processes provide the genetic environment for rapid heterochronic microevolution.

This study assessed how the palatability of leaves of different age classes (young, intermediate and older) of Eucalyptus nitens seedlings varied with plant nutrient status, based on captive feeding trials with two mammalian herbivores, Red-bellied Pademelons (Thylogale billardierii), and Common Brushtail Possums (Trichosurus vulpecula). Seedlings were grown under three nutrient treatments (low, medium and high) and we determined how palatability was related to chemical and physical characteristics of the leaves. Pademelons ate more older leaves than young and intermediate leaves for all treatments. This pattern was best explained by sideroxylonals (formylated pholoroglucinol compounds known to deter herbivory by other marsupials), and/or essential oil compounds that were in lower concentrations in older leaves. In the low nutrient treatment, possums also ate more of the older leaves. However, in the medium and high nutrient treatments, possums ate more intermediate leaves than older leaves and showed a behavioural preference for young leaves (consuming younger leaves first) over intermediate and older leaves, in spite of high levels of sideroxylonals and essential oils. The young leaves did, however, have the highest nitrogen concentration of the leaf age classes. Thus, either sideroxylonals and essential oils provided little or no deterrent to possums, or the deterrent was outweighed by other factors such as high nitrogen. This study indicates that mammalian herbivores show different levels of relative use and damage to leaf age classes at varying levels of plant nutrient status and, therefore, their impact on plant fitness may vary with environment.

The Early Pleistocene Regatta Point sediments contain macrofossils that suggest that generic and specific rainforest diversity was higher in the region than it is today both locally and regionally, but the diversity was probably lower than it was for most of the Tertiary. The sediments contain extinct species of conifers and angiosperms which have closest living relatives in a wide range of environments, mainly wet forests of warmer areas than western Tasmania, but also relatively cool and dry areas. Simple models of climatically driven extinction explain these extinctions poorly. It is more likely that there was a wide range of causes of extinctions. New species, Acacia bulbosa, Rubus nebuloides, Quintinia tasmanensis, Oxylobium pungens, Laurophyllum australum and Myrtaceaephyllum pleistocenicum, are described.

The first Fossil capsule of Eucryphia, E. reticulata R.W.Barnes and G.J.Jord. sp. nov., is described from Lea River (Early Oligocene), and, like capsules of the two extant South American species or E. glutinosa (Poepp. et Endl.) Baill. and E. cordifolia Cav., is large and has a relatively large number of valves. The capsule occurs with a Eucryphia leaf macrofossil that was probably a leaflet from a compound leaf as it is highly falcate. The leaflet may be derived from the same parent plant as E. reticulata but in the absence of an organic connection it is described as a new species, E. leaensis R.W. Barnes and G.J. Jord. sp. nov. Additional leaf macrofossil specimens of E. aberensis R.S. Hill from the type locality (Loch Aber; Middle - Late Eocene) and a new locality record for the species, Little Rapid River (Early Oligocene), indicate that the species had compound leaves formed by serrate and entire margin leaflets. Another incomplete Eucryphia capsule occurs at Little Rapid River (Early Oligocene) but it is too poorly preserved to assign it to an extant or extinct species. It may be derived from the same parent plant as E. aberensis, with which it occurs, but cannot be confirmed as there is no organic connection. A new leaf macrofossil with serrate margins, E. mucronata R.W. Barnes and G.J. Jord. sp. nov., is also described from? Latest Eocene - Early Oligocene sediments at Wilson's Creek, central Tasmania. Leaf macrofossils previously assigned to E. aff. milliganii from Early Pleistocene sediments at Regatta Point in western Tasmania are shown to be conspecific with the two extant Tasmanian species, E. lucida (Labill.) Baill. and E. milliganii Hook.f. ssp. milliganii on the basis of foliar hair distribution patterns and density. The oldest fossil Eucryphia species, E. falcata R.S. Hill (Lake Bungarby; Late Paleocene), had compound leaves formed by leaflets with serrate margins, which is possibly the plesiomorphic condition for all Cunoniaceae genera. Within Eucr

Nothofagus cunninghamii (myrtle) has a widespread distribution through the temperate rainforest of southeastern Australia with some disjunct populations existing in putative glacial refugia. Polymorphic nuclear markers are required to resolve the biogeographical history of the species and will also be useful for conservation and forestry applications in this and other species of Nothofagus. Fourteen polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated from N. cunninghamii, with four to 10 alleles amplified in 15 individuals tested. Transferability to other species of Nothofagus was successful, with six loci transferring to all eight other species tested.

The adaptive significance of the timing of the abrupt change in leaf form in Eucalyptus globulus Labill. spp. globulus was investigated using quantitative genetic analysis of several field trials containing open-pollinated progenies. Five large trials contained progeny from across the whole geographic range of this taxon. On this broad scale, early phase change appears to promote growth on two sites but not the other three, implying differential selection for the timing of phase change. The timing of vegetative phase change varied markedly between broad geographic regions, consistent with either adaptation to broad scale variation or historical differentiation. Data from one small trial demonstrated a genetic basis to a steep local cline in habit, in the size of plants flowering and in the height of the change in foliage type. In this trial, the progeny from an exposed coastal cliff top had markedly slower growth, earlier vegetative phase change and first flowering than the progeny from 1.5 km inland. This genetically determined combination of slow growth, early phase change and precocious flowering appears to be maintained in exposed coastal environments by current selection, and contrasts with more complex patterns of broad scale geographic variation. The genetic association of the timing of vegetative phase change with growth rate, a fitness surrogate, ranged from positive to negative at different sites. Early phase change may, for example, be favoured in warm, wet environments to reduce damage by leaf fungi, but may also be favoured on exposed dry sites to increase xeromorphy. The patterns of genetic variation in nature may thus result from multiple causes (both biotic and abiotic) and their interpretation will be complex.

A new species of Nothofagus, N. pachyphylla, is proposed based on fossils from Early Pleistocene sediments at Regatta Point, western Tasmania. This extinct species occurred for some time with its sister species, N. cunninghamii, which is still extant in Tasmania. The fossil leaves of N. cunninghamii in the Regatta Point sediments are all very small and are only consistent with leaves from cold climate extant populations of this species. The fossil leaves of other taxa in these sediments are also mostly at the small (and cool climate) end of the range of the leaves of their extant relatives. These data provide corroborating evidence for floristically based inferences of colder than modern palaeoclimates for this fossil site. The co-occurrence of small and large leaved sister species is paralleled in a number of modern Tasmanian rainforest genera.

Ever since a feral population of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris was found in suburban Hobart, on the Australian island of Tasmania, there has been ongoing debate surrounding the capacity of this species to utilise Australian native vegetation. Although several studies have reported B. terrestris foraging on Tasmanian native vegetation, doubts have been raised as to whether this reflects successful breeding in native vegetation. This study documents the success of a colony of B. terrestris in a Tasmanian National Park, isolated from urban and agricultural areas by 10 km of sea. Examination of the larval cocoons revealed that this colony had produced at least 304 new queens and 939 workers and drones. Pollen stores found in the colony were mostly from native plants, particularly Eucalyptus. These results strongly suggest that B. terrestris is able to reproduce successfully in parts of Australia that still support almost exclusively native vegetation.

Bandulskaia aestuaria gen. et sp. nov. is described from Early Eocene estuarine sediments in Tasmania. It is represented by a single, incomplete leaf, which displays a toothed margin and well-preserved cuticle. Despite the absence of teeth in over 2500 known species of fossil and extant Lauraceae, the fossil cuticle has a combination of traits that are lauraceous. These include the synapomorphy of stomata confined to small areoles, and also paracytic stomata with apparently embedded guard cells, simple, uniseriate trichomes with thickened, poral bases, slit-like stomatal apertures on the outer abaxial surface and persistent resin bodies. Leaf teeth could be a plesiomorphic trait in Lauraceae, as monimioid teeth occur throughout other lauralean families. However, the fossil teeth were evidently not glandular as in monimioid teeth, and thus are unlikely to be homologous with the teeth of other Laurales. Rather, the teeth are likely to have been apomorphic, having evolved in response to the physiological demands of the warm, wet, high latitude 'Greenhouse' environment.

The leaf cuticular morphology of extant species of Platanus was investigated using light and scanning electron microscopy. All species are shown to possess trichome bases of the same type as those commonly found in Proteaceae. Of particular significance are compound forms that consist of an annular surface scar associated with more than one underlying epidermal cell. These are found on the adaxial leaf surfaces of all species of Platanus and are also clearly evident on the abaxial surface of Platanus orientalis. This type of trichome base is therefore interpreted as the first detected nonreproductive morphological synapomorphy linking Proteaceae and Platanaceae. Also, the laterocytic, sometimes paracytic, or anomocytic arrangement of subsidiary cells in Platanus is distinct from the general state in Proteaceae, which is brachyparacytic and presumably derived. In Bellendena, possibly the most basal genus of extant Proteaceae, subsidiary cell arrangements resemble those of Platanus. These results are discussed with respect to leaf fossil records of Proteales, where it is concluded that the combination of brachyparacytic stomata and compound trichome bases is strong evidence for Proteaceae.

This review summarises the fossil record of bryophytes, including the record from Australia. Bryophytes, especially mosses produce distinctive fossils that often can be identified quite precisely. For unknown reasons, the Mesozoic and Palaeozoic records are dominated by hepatics, whereas the more recent (Cenozoic) records are dominated by mosses. The fossil record suggests relatively slow evolution of bryophytes, with most Cainozoic records attributable to extant genera (and sometimes species).