Asparagaceae

Great advances have been made in our understanding of the phylogeny and classification of Aga-vaceae in the last 20 years. In older systems Agavaceae were paraphyletic due to overemphasis of ovary position or habit. Discovery of a unique bimodal karyotype in Agave and Yucca eventually led to a reexamination of concepts and relationships in all the lilioid monocots, which continues to the present day. Developments in cytogenetics, microscopy, phylogenetic systematics, and most recently DNA technology have led to remarkable new insights. Large-scale rbcL sequence studies placed Agavaceae with the core Asparagales and identified closely related taxa. Analysis of cpDNA restriction sites, rbcL, and ITS nrDNA sequences all supported removal of Dracaenaceae, Nolinaceae, and clarified relationships. Agavaceae s.s. presently consists of Agave, Beschorneria, Furcraea, Hesperaloe, Hes-peroyucca, Manfreda, Polianthes, Prochnyanthes, and Yucca. In this paper we analyze recently obtained ndhF sequence data from Agavaceae and Asparagales and discuss the implications for classification. Parsimony analysis of ndhF data alone resolves most genera of Agavaceae and supports the inclusion of Camassia, Chlorogalum, Hesperocallis, and Hosta within Agavaceae s.l. Analysis of combined ndhF and rbcL data sets of selected Asparagales results in better resolution and stronger bootstrap support for many relationships. Combination of all available ndhF, rbcL, and ITS data in a single analysis results in the best resolution currently available for Agavaceae s.l. Implications for classification schemes past and present are discussed.

The history, introduction and distribution of Sansevieria burdettii in Malawi is described in detail; the species was studied or reported by Theo Peter Campbell-Barker, Richard K. Brummitt, Horst Pfennig, Bruce J. Hargreaves, Mavis Scholes, Dave Richards, and Philip E. Downs before it was finally published as new by Juan B. Chahinian in 2000. Sansevieria burdettii is documented from Malawi by collections or  photographs from Nkunguni Mt., Boadzulu Island (identity uncertain), Mpatamanga Gorge, and Kapichira Falls, and literature / sight records report it from near Blantyre and Senga Hills. In addition, the species was recently documented from four localities in Northeastern Mozambique.

Fessia is a genus of bulbous flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae (also treated as the family (Hyacinthaceae)). It is distributed from Iran to Central Asia and Pakistan. A number of species of Fessia, often under their earlier names in the genus Scilla. It contains eleven species worldwide and about five species in Iran. In This survey a new taxon is seen that was very similar to Fessia khorassanica and Fessia gorganica but is differernt from points of view from them. The new species is compared with its closest relatives Fessia khorasanica Meikle. is similar to F. khorasanica Meikle in number of stem, leaf shape, pedicle length, bract shape and color, anther color, ovary shape, fruit shape, fruit color, seed shape and ornamentation of surface seed cells. But, differs in Bulbs size bigger, stem being taller, leaf taller, inflorescence taller, perianth color is blue-violet, perianth margin is white, anther size taller, style size taller, stalk of stamen taller, capsule longer, seed shape is elliptic. F. assadii is similar to F. gorganica in leaf number, capsule size, bract size, bulbs length and bulbs shape. But differs in having smaller plant, leaf shape is linear-lanceolate, bract color is scabrid white margin, perianth color is violet-blue, perianth length is smaller, perianth margin is white and smaller stalk of stamen . In the final Fessia assadii is described and illustrated as a new species from the subalpine areas in Khorassan province, Iran.

A broad review of the history, discovery, introduction, taxonomy, nomenclature, distribution, habitats, ecology, and characteristics of Agave mitis (syn. A. celsii) is provided. A revised taxonomic concept is introduced: The invalidly published A. mitis var. albidior shows broad overlap in its diagnostic features (leaf colour and length of the tepal lobes) with A. mitis var. mitis and is therefore referred to the synonymy; no infraspecific taxa are recognized. A. ehrenbergii and A. goeppertiana are established as new synonyms. A neotype is designated for A. albicans. A. mitis is more widespread than previously known and
occurs in the Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Hidalgo and Puebla; a distribution
map is given.

The Dragon tree, Dracaena draco (L.) L., is an extremely threatened species. Its natural regeneration is disturbed and population appears to decrease rapidly. To design appropriate germination and seedling establishment protocols for a species conservation and restoration program, we studied the effects of pre-soaking, substrate and light availability treatment on seed germination for 15-day period. The condition for light availability corresponded to the sowing depth (at surface or at 2 cm depth). Germination occurred better in the dark when seeds were sown at 2 cm depth. Our results showed that D. draco seeds sown in the sand under dark condition and after 24 hours pre-soaking in warm water germinated better and recorded 82.5% of final germination percentage (FGP). However, seedlings grew better in potting soil and recorded 54 mm of length. The maximum FGP of 51.3% was recorded under light condition. These results indicate that sowing depth and light availability could be a limiting factor for D. draco seed germination in natural condition. Furthermore, the establishment of D. draco seedlings (shoot and root length) during an 8-week period in pots was also assessed and illustrated. More research on seed ecophysiology is required to understand the mechanisms controlling seed germination of D. draco in arid and semi-arid conditions viz. salinity and drought. Contents 1 In trod u ct ion 21 2 Mat er ial s an d m eth od s 22 2. 1 Co ll ec tion an d s e ed ch a ract e ri st ic s 22 2. 2 E xp e ri m en t al d e s ign 23 2. 3 Kin et ic o f se ed lin g s e m e rg en c e 23 2. 4 Data an a ly si s 24 3 Re su lt s an d d i s cu s si on 24 3. 1 E f fe ct of p r e-soak in g, s u b st rat e an d l ig h t 24 3. 2 Kin et ic o f se ed lin g s e m e rg en c e 26 4 Con clu s ion 27 AR TI CL E IN FO Citation: Kheloufi A, Boukhecha M, Ouachi A (2020) Effect of pre-soaking, substrate and light availability on seed germination and seedling establishment of Dracaena draco (L.) L., a threatened tree species.

Today many gardeners are praising the virtues of foliage and hosta is one of the best perennial plants for foliage. We conducted a pot experiment to evaluate the performance in growth and flowering through two consecutive years and variation in leaf characters of hosta taxa. We used twelve hosta taxa in the experiment coded from T1-T12. We found significant variation between the taxa for plant height, leaf numbers, single leaf area, chlorophyll content, peduncle length, floret length, and floret numbers in both the year of 2015 and 2016. All growth and flowering characters reduced on the second consecutive year. The reduction range of florets per peduncle was 21.97-36.74% and floret length was 19.89-22.16% on the second consecutive year. Vegetative growth parameters were found as negligible reduction. But, we found noticeable number of leaves reduction for three taxa and these were H. longipes var. gracillima (20.11%), H. sieboldiana (19.92%) and H. montana (16.95%). Leaf vine numbers were 19, 6, 8, 6, 12, 10, 8, 12, 12, 12, 10 and 16 for T1 to T12, respectively. Phenotypic traits variability will help to the future hosta researchers and breeders.

For two recently published species of Polianthes, P. alboaustralis E.Solano & Ríos-Gómez and P. cernua Art.Castro, J.G.González & Aarón Rodr., binomials in Agave are proposed: Agave alboaustralis (E.Solano & Ríos-Gómez) Thiede comb. nov. and Agave neocernua Thiede nom. nov.

... Protasparagus and Myrsiphyllum are perhaps best treated as subgenera of Asparagus'. Mathew (1989) followed Dahlgren et al. (1985) in recognising the three genera, circumscribed as follows: Asparagus. ... (1985) and Mathew (1989) appeared to break down in certain species. ...

The genus Chrysodracon has six endemic species in the Hawaii Islands. Chrysodracon hawaiiensis is endemic to Hawaii Island and was described as a distinct species in 1980. It was listed as an endangered species on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List in 1997. This woody plant species was, at one time, common in exposed dry forests, but it became very rare due to grazing pressure and human development. The tree species Chrysodracon auwahiensis (C. auwahiensis), endemic to Maui and Molokai, still has large adult populations in dry lands of the islands, but unfortunately no regeneration from seed has been reported in those areas for many years. The two endemic species were examined using the molecular technique of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) to determine the genetic structure of the populations and the amount of variation. Both species possess similar genetic structure. Larger a...