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Australian Systematic Botany Australian Systematic Botany Society
Taxonomy, biogeography and evolution of plants
RESEARCH ARTICLE

A taxonomic revision of Australian northern sandalwood (Santalum lanceolatum, Santalaceae)

Danica T. Harbaugh
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- Author Affiliations

University and Jepson Herbaria, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, 1001 Valley Life Sciences Building, Berkeley, California 94720-2465, USA. Email: danicah@berkeley.edu

Australian Systematic Botany 20(5) 409-416 https://doi.org/10.1071/SB07009
Submitted: 2 March 2007  Accepted: 10 July 2007   Published: 8 November 2007

Abstract

A previously published molecular phylogenetic analysis of the sandalwood genus, Santalum L. (Santalaceae), identified that the Australian endemic northern sandalwood, S. lanceolatum R.Br., is not monophyletic and contains a distinct, yet cryptic, lineage within it as currently circumscribed. This study examines nuclear ribosomal gene sequences of additional specimens from across its geographic range, and 30 morphological characters, in order to revise the taxonomy of S. lanceolatum sensu lat. (s.l.) and the segregate species that should bear the name S. leptocladum Gand. Santalum lanceolatum sensu stricto (s.s.) is distributed in the humid to subhumid regions of northern Australia north of 20°S latitude, whereas S. leptocladum occurs in the arid and temperate regions of central and southern Australia. Putative interspecific hybrids were discovered in two localities, and may represent either natural or human-mediated hybridisation. The results of this study have major economic and conservation implications because S. lanceolatum s.s., which is known to have higher levels of fragrance compounds than S. leptocladum, has a much more restricted range than previously thought.


Acknowledgements

This study represents work completed as part of my PhD dissertation research at the University of California, Berkeley. I thank my advisor B. Baldwin for his advice and comments on the manuscript; A. Smith and W. Wagner for their comments on the manuscript and help with the taxonomy; two anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript; T. Page for providing plant material; L. Ocampo and B. Lepschi for their assistance in the field; and the following institutions for loan of herbarium material used in these analyses: BM, CANB, K, and UC. This research was partly funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Department of Integrative Biology Graduate Research Grant (UC Berkeley), a Botany in Action Travel Grant (Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens), an American Society for Plant Taxonomists Graduate Research Grant, a Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation Lawrence Memorial Award, and a Santa Barbara Scholarship Foundation Graduate Fellowship.


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