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Abstract Detail



Systematics Section/ASPT

Michelangeli, Fabian [1], Tiernan, Nichole [2], Watson, Kimberly [2], Tulig, Melissa [2].

The PBI Miconieae project website: towards complete web-based monograph of the tribe Miconieae (Melastomataceae).

With 1800 species in 18-20 genera, the tribe Miconieae constitutes the largest group within the plant family Melastomataceae. Having a strictly neotropical distribution, the tribe is ecologically important due to the diversity and number of individuals in forest understories, as well as for being an important food source for birds and mammals. Additionally, the Miconieae includes two of the worst invasive species in the Hawaiian and South Pacific Islands (Koster’s curse [Clidemia hirta] and purple plague [Miconia calvescens]). The collaborative NSF-funded Planetary Biodiversity Inventory (PBI) Miconieae project aims to comprehensively monograph all species within the tribe, combining studies conducted in the field, herbarium, and laboratory. All information generated is being made available online through a dedicated web interface hosted by The New York Botanical Garden’s Virtual Herbarium [http://sweetgum.nybg.org/melastomataceae/index.php]. Stored within NYBG’s content management system, KE EMu, online data will include: complete species descriptions with current taxonomic status, nomenclature, protologue citations, and type information; images such as field photos, botanical illustrations, scanning electron micrographs of seeds and other taxonomically significant characters; keys for species identification; catalogued and digitized NY herbarium specimens; distribution maps for each species; and an exhaustive bibliography of relevant literature. This website will be instrumental in determining the large back-log of specimens of neotropical Melastomataceae held at herbaria throughout the world. It will also support the first phylogenetically congruent, character-based taxonomy for the tribe. Providing a model framework for presenting the tools of modern monographic treatments, the PBI Miconeae project makes these data publicly available.

Broader Impacts:


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1 - The New York Botanical Garden, Institute of Systematic Botany, 2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx, NY, 10458, USA
2 - The New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY, 10458, USA

Keywords:
Miconieae
Melastomataceae
Miconia
electronic monograph.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 39
Location: Elmwood/Riverside Hilton
Date: Wednesday, July 31st, 2013
Time: 9:30 AM
Number: 39005
Abstract ID:689
Candidate for Awards:None


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