XVI International Botanical Congess

A number of plant genera have pan-Pacific disjunct distributions which may be the product of vicariance or dispersal events. This poster presents the results of a study of the evolution of three different types of DNA in the context of southern hemisphere disjunctions. DNA sequences gathered include the chloroplast trn L intron and spacer region, and the nuclear ITS 1 and 2, Adh genes. Data are presented for three mongeneric families with different life strategies. These families are, (1) Coriaria , which has seven species in New Zealand, two in South America and about six in the northern hemisphere. (2) Griselinia , which has five species in Chile and two in New Zealand. (3) Eucryphia, which has two species in Chile and seven in Australia. The combined data from three very different types of DNA will give an insight into the phylogeny of these genera which can be related to their biogeography and their breeding and dispersal strategies.