Create your own conference schedule! Click here for full instructions

Abstract Detail


Tropical Biology Section

Garwood, Nancy [1].

Neotropical seedlings: The current state of our knowledge of this important stage in the life cycle and ways to improve it.

I published a review of published information on Neotropical seedlings in my book, Seedlings of Barro Colorado Island and the Neotropics in 2009. At that time I did not calculate the percentage of Neotropical taxa for which seedlings have been identified because obtaining good estimates of the number of species in Neotropical families and genera was difficult when that part of the manuscript was prepared. Better estimates of Neotropical diversity are now available. Here I present data on that percentage by family, genus and species. Not surprisingly, the percent of taxa with at least one species with an identified seedling is high at the family level but lower at the generic level. Seedlings are known from only a small percentage of the more than 75,000 Neotropical angiosperm species. I also contrast seedling knowledge in families differing in number of genera and species and those that are primarily woody versus herbaceous. Lastly, I discuss strategies to improve seedling knowledge in the Neotropics.

Broader Impacts:


Log in to add this item to your schedule

1 - Southern Illinois University, Life Science II, Mailcode 6509, Life Science II, Mailcode 6509, 1125 Lincoln Ave., Carbondale, IL, 62901, USA

Keywords:
seedling
Neotropical
Taxonomy.

Presentation Type: Poster:Posters for Sections
Session: P
Location: Khorassan Ballroom/Chase Park Plaza
Date: Monday, July 11th, 2011
Time: 5:30 PM
Number: PTB001
Abstract ID:640


Copyright © 2000-2011, Botanical Society of America. All rights reserved