The Bean Bag

Number 45November 1997

News

Fourth International Legume Conference

The Fourth International Legume Conference is to be held at Melbourne University, Australia in 2001 and is provisionally timed for the last week of June.

The organisers, Dr J. Grimes (RBG Melbourne) and Dr M. Crisp (Australian National Univiversity, Canberra) would like ideas for symposia. Currently they are proposing the following topics; Biogeography, Systematics, Development, Genetics and Phytochemistry
Each symposium will comprise a combination of invited and contributed papers. Poster papers will be accepted. Suggestions for the content and format are encouraged and should be sent to:

J. Grimes
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
Birdwood Avenue
South Yarra
Victoria 3141
AUSTRALIA
jgrimes@rbgmelb.org.au

M. Crisp
Division of Botany and Zoology
Australian National University
ACT 0200
AUSTRALIA
Mike.Crisp@anu.edu.au
http://online.anu.edu.au/BoZo/crisp.html

Legume Symposia at the XIV International Botanical Congress

Two proposals for Leguminosae symposia have been submitted.

Phylogeny of Leguminosae I: Mimosoideae and Papilionoideae.

Considerable advances have been made recently in establishing phylogenetic hypotheses for the entire Leguminosae and for several of its consituent groups (subfamilies and tribes). This symposium focuses on the two subfamilies that are supported as monophyletic by both molecular and non-molecular data. The symposium is built around "working groups" composed of individuals who have for the most part separately produced data of diverse types relevant to understanding relationships involving relatively large groupings of genera. Groups emphasized include Mimosoideae, basal Papilionoideae, and the products of several apparent radiations among Papilionoideae. The emerging changes in our understanding of relationships bears not only on the taxonomy of the family, but are of fundamental importance in elucidating such issues as floral and vegetative development and the origin and evolution of nodulation. This symposium is to be linked to, "Phylogeny of Leguminosae II", organised by Anne Bruneau and Patrick Herendeen.

1. Jeff J. Doyle* and Jenny Chappill (Cornell University, USA and University of Western Australia): Molecules and morphology: toward a comprehensive phylogenetic hypothesis for the Leguminosae.
2. Jim Grimes* and Melissa Luckow [additional participants to be added] (Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Australia, and Cornell University, USA): Progress in elucidating the phylogeny of Mimosoideae.
3. Toby Pennington*, Matt Lavin, Bente B. Klitgaard, and Haroldo Cavalcante de Lima (Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Scotland; Montana State University, USA; University of Aarhus, Denmark; and Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil): Basal Papilionoideae (Sophoreae and Dalbergieae) and their various connections to monophyletic papilionoid groups.
4. M. D. Crisp*, Ben-Erik Van Wyk and Michael Wink (Australian National University, Canberra, Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg, South Africa, and University of Heidelberg, Germany): Relationships in the genistoid alliance, a predominantly southern hemisphere group of tribes.
5. Matt Lavin*, Alfonso Delgado, Anne Bruneau, Jer-Ming Hu, Hiroyoshi Ohashi, Tadashi Kajita, and Jeff J. Doyle (Montana State University, USA; UNAM, Mexico; University of Montreal, Canada; University of California, Davis, USA; Tohoku University, Japan; Kyushu University, Japan; and Cornell University, USA): Paraphyly, polyphyly, and the radiation of tropical papilionoid legume tribes: Millettieae, Phaseoleae, and allies.
6. Brian Schrire* and Nigel Barker (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK and Rhodes University, South Africa): Phylogeny of Indigofereae: evidence from molecules and morphology.
7. Kelly P. Steele*, Michael J. Sanderson, Martin Wojciechowski, and Aaron Liston (California State University, Hayward, USA; University of California, Davis, USA [MJS & MW]; and Oregon State University, USA): Phylogenetic relationships of temperate herbaceous papilionoid tribes.

Phylogeny of the Leguminosae II Relationships in Caesalpinioideae, evidence from multiple character sources.

Organisers: Patrick Herendeen and Anne Bruneau

Phylogenetic relationships in subfamily Caesalpinioideae of Leguminosae. Despite the taxonomic importance of this subfamily, relationships within Caesalpinioideae remain among the most poorly understood in the Leguminosae. This symposium brings together researchers who have been studying different aspects of the biology of this group as a means of examining phylogenetic relationships in the subfamily. The symposium provides a synthesis of recent studies examining pollen morphology, morphological and anatomical features, floral development, pollination biology and molecular characters. A general and historical overview discussing problems with generic delimations and regionalism introduces the symposium. The final talk provides an overview of what phylogenetic studies in this and other members of Leguminosae can tell us about the historical biogeography of the family as a whole. This symposium is to be linked to, "Phylogeny of the Leguminosae I" organised by Jeff J. Doyle and Michael D. Crisp.

1. Frans Breteler and Jan J. Wieringa (Wageningen Agricultural University): Generic delimitations in Caesalpinioideae.
2. Patrick Herendeen (George Washington University): Structural evolution in the Caesalpinioideae.
3. Shirley Tucker, Katherine Kantz, Andrew W. Douglas (University of California at Santa Barbara, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Chicago Field Museum) : Floral development in Caesalpinioideae.
4. Keith Ferguson and Hannah Banks (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew): The contribution of pollen morphology to the understanding of relationships within the Caesalpinioideae.
5. Gwilym Lewis (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew): Advanced sexual systems in basal Caesalpinioideae: A survey of pollination syndromes and breeding systems.
6. Anne Bruneau (Université de Montréal): Phylogenetic relationships in Caesalpinioideae based on chloroplast DNA characters.
7. Melissa Luckow (Cornell University): Historical Biogeography of the Leguminosae: Insights from phylogenetic studies.

Roger Polhill

Roger Polhill retires from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on 20th November 1997. He sends his greetings to everyone who has worked with him over the last thirty five years on all sorts of interesting and challenging enterprises. It has always been one of his greatest pleasures that the legume community has worked together so effectively and harmoniously and hehopes it may long continue to do so.

Director Emeritus, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada

John McNeill, Director of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto since 1991, ended his directorship on 1 February 1997, taking the title Director Emeritus and returning to botanical research activity. Professor McNeill moved to ROM as Associate Director in charge of Collections and Research in 1989, having previously been Regius Keeper (Director) of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. He became Acting Director of the ROM 10 months later and was confirmed as Director in March 1991; his initial five-year term was extended last year. As Director Emeritus, McNeill will have an initial period of administrative leave, but, although he will be visiting and working at a number of institutes for short periods over the next year or so, he will continue to be based at the Royal Ontario Museum, and except, perhaps, for a few months in late 1997, does not expect to be away from Toronto for more than a few weeks at a time.

His initial emphasis will be to deal with the backlog of work that has accumulated on existing projects, most notably the Flora of North America, for which he is an editor and author for parts of an imminent volume, as well as Nomenclatural Advisor to the project. He will also continue his current activities in, for example, bionomenclature and as new Chairman of the IOPI project.

Apart from the change of title, his postal and e-mail addresses are unchanged, although his telephone and fax numbers will change. Effective 1 February 1997, both are 416-586-5744.

Wood Collection of the Smithsonian Institution

Laurence J. Dorr

Label information associated with the Wood Collection (U.S. National Herbarium, USw) is now available electronically. The Wood Collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History (USw) contains approximately 42,500 specimens representing almost 3000 genera. In addition, approximately 5000 microscope slides are associated with the Wood Collection. The label information associated with these collections has been WAIS indexed and interested parties are encouraged to access this information electronically at the following URL: gopher://nmnhgoph.si.edu, where they should first select , then . This will give them a choice to read either more information about the collection or initiate a search of the database. The "about" file also provides information regarding formal requests of material for sectioning.

Images of Anther Glands in the Mimosoid Legume Tribes Parkieae and Mimoseae

M.Luckow

Images of anther glands in the mimosoid legume tribes Parkieae and Mimoseae are available on the WWW at http://www.bio.cornell.edu/hortorium/luckow/anther.html. This set of over 150 scanning electron microscope photos complements a recent paper by M. Luckow and J. Grimes: A survey of anther glands in the mimosoid legume tribes Parkieae and Mimoseae, American Journal of Botany 84: 285-297, 1997. Only a small subset of photographs could be included in the paper, but this site has images from all 30 genera in the study.

International Legume Database and Information Service (ILDIS)

F.Bisby

The ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre has moved to the University of Reading (Effective Ist October 1997).

The ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre
School of Plant Sciences
University of Reading
PO Box 221
Reading RG6 6AS
UK

tel :+44-(0)-118-931-6437
fax: +44-(0)-118-975-3676
email: ildis@ildis.org

ILDIS is participating in the Species 2000 initiative. Enquiries to "Species 2000 Secretariat" at the same address, telephone number and fax above. Email to: sp2000@sp2000.org

Electronic News Group Devoted to Lupins

G . Hill

There is now an electronic news group devoted to lupins called LupiNet. It is run by Dr Dan Putnam of the University of California, Davis. To subscribe directly to lupiNet write to: listproc@ucdavis.edu and write in the body of the message:

subscribe lupin-mg Firstname Lastname Description of your address and interests.

Furthermore a WWW site for the International Lupin Association. It can be found at: http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/plsc/ila/luphome.htm. The first two items deal with a couple of upcoming meetings in Germany.