The web page background is the ‘negative’ of a scan of the dry, 1-seeded mericarps of Biebersteinia orphanidis.

Our team is currently investigating the dormancy status and the germination requirements of these seeds.

LARGE

IMAGE (1.3 MB)

Biebersteinia orphanidis Boiss. was considered extinct from Greece and Europe since Orphanides’ type collection of 1851. Its rediscovery (in a critically low number of individuals) was reported in 1994 from a mountain of northern Peloponnese, close to the classical locality (1). Recently, it was additionally found in several small populations in and around the massif of Mt Killini (Cyllene) (2). The plant, a perennial herb, has been declared ‘endangered’ and is included in the Red Data Book of rare and threatened plants of Greece (3). The species serves as a distinct phytogeographical link between the floras of Greece and Anatolia where it also grows in several populations (4). Biebersteinia orphanidis and its congeners are traditionally placed in the family Geraniaceae (4, 5); however, recent works based on gene sequences (6), caryomorphology (7) and flavonoid chemistry (8) do not support its grouping in Geraniaceae s.s. nor in Geraniales but indicate a position nested within Sapindales (6). All this evidence may justify a separate familial status (Biebersteiniaceae) for the genus (9) also suggested independently (Biebersteiniaceae, Biebersteiniales) on the ground of morphological evidence (10).

References

(1) Yannitsaros A.G., Constantinidis T.A., Vassiliades D.D. 1996. The rediscovery of Biebersteinia orphanidis Boiss. (Geraniaceae) in Greece. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 120, 239-242. (pdf)

(2) Vassiliades D., Yannitsaros A. 2000. Orphanides’s best discovery. Botanika Chronika 13, 241-248.

(3) Phitos D., Strid A., Snogerup S., Greuter W. (eds). 1995. The Red Data Book of rare and threatened plants of Greece. World Wide Fund for Nature. Athens.

(4) Davis P.H. (ed.) 1967. Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Vol 2. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

(5) Tutin T.G., Heywood V.H., Burges N.A., Moore D.M., Valentine D.H., Walters S.M., Webb, D.A. (eds) 1968. Flora Europaea. Vol 2. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

(6) Bakker F.T., Vassiliades D.D., Morton C., Savolainen V. 1998. Phylogenetic relationships of Biebersteinia Stephan (Geraniaceae) inferred from rbcL and atpB sequence comparisons. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 127, 149–158.

(7) Liu J.Q., Ho T.N., Chen S.L., Lu A.M. 2001. Karyomorphology of Biebersteinia Stephan (Geraniaceae) and its systematic and taxonomic significance. Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica 42. 61-66.

(8) Greenham J., Vassiliades D.D., Harborne J.B., Williams C.A., Eagles J., Grayer R.J., Veitch N.C. 2001. A distinctive flavonoid chemistry for the anomalous genus Biebersteinia. Phytochemistry 56, 87-91.

(9) Watson L., Dallwitz M.J. 1992 onwards. The Families of Flowering Plants: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 14th December 2000. http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/

(10) Takhtajan A.1997. Diversity and Classification of Flowering Plants, Columbia University Press, New York.

Costas A. Thanos, April 2003