A review of the melliferous flora of Yucatan peninsula, Mexico, on the basis for the honey production cycle.

BACKGROUND: The Yucatan Peninsula (YP) is one of the most important regions in global apiculture. Hence, this work reviews and integrates the knowledge of the species diversity, growth habits, ecosystems, floral calendars during the apiculture production cycles and the types of vegetation represented in the melliferous flora (MF) of the YP; as a basis for proposing selection strategies locating suitable apiculture production areas for local beekeepers and help in the economic development of the region. METHODS: A comprehensive review of the MF literature was carried out using the snowball method to determine and update the number of species useful for apiculture. The growth habits and flower calendars were determined through a review of the literature and databases of specimens from the herbaria CICY, UCAM and MEXU. RESULTS: The YP reports a total of 935 taxa of MF (98 families and 498 genera); of these, Campeche has 812 taxa, followed by Quintana Roo (786) and Yucatán (767). The MF is made up of herbs (282), followed by shrubs (260), trees (229), climbers (82), woody climbers (67) palms (14) and parasitic plant (1). CONCLUSION: Of the 935 species of MF registered at the regional level, a high number of species have flowering throughout the year, however, not all of these species are considered useful for local commercial apiculture. Only a select group of 23 species are considered of major importance for local apiculture industry.

Revisiting the phylogeny and taxonomy of the Pithecellobium clade (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae) with new generic circumscriptions.

We present the most complete molecular phylogeny to date of the Pithecellobium clade of subfamily Caesalpinioideae. This neotropical group was informally recognised (as the Pithecellobium alliance) at the end of the 20th century by Barneby and Grimes (1996) and includes five genera and 33 species distributed from the southern United States and Caribbean Islands to north-eastern South America. Our aims were to further test the monophyly of the group and its genera and to identify sister group relationships within and amongst the genera. A phylogenetic analysis of nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences (ITS and ETS) was performed. The results provide further support for the monophyly of the Pithecellobium clade. The genera Ebenopsis, Pithecellobium and Sphinga were strongly supported as monophyletic. Havardia and Painteria were found to be non-monophyletic, prompting their re-circumscriptions and the description of two new genera: Gretheria and Ricoa. New combinations are made for the three species transferred to the new genera.

Re-establishment of the genus Pseudalbizzia (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae, mimosoid clade): the New World species formerly placed in Albizia.

Following recent mimosoid phylogenetic and phylogenomic studies demonstrating the non-monophyly of the genus Albizia, we present a new molecular phylogeny focused on the neotropical species in the genus, with much denser taxon sampling than previous studies. Our aims were to test the monophyly of the neotropical section Arthrosamanea, resolve species relationships, and gain insights into the evolution of fruit morphology. We perform a Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of sequences of nuclear internal and external transcribed spacer regions and trace the evolution of fruit dehiscence and lomentiform pods. Our results find further support for the non-monophyly of the genus Albizia, and confirm the previously proposed segregation of Hesperalbizia, Hydrochorea, Balizia and Pseudosamanea. All species that were sampled from section Arthrosamanea form a clade that is sister to a clade composed of Jupunba, Punjuba, Balizia and Hydrochorea. We find that lomentiform fruits are independently derived from indehiscent septate fruits in both Hydrochorea and section Arthrosamanea. Our results show that morphological adaptations to hydrochory, associated with shifts into seasonally flooded habitats, have occurred several times independently in different geographic areas and different lineages within the ingoid clade. This suggests that environmental conditions have likely played a key role in the evolution of fruit types in Albizia and related genera. We resurrect the name Pseudalbizzia to accommodate the species of section Arthrosamanea, except for two species that were not sampled here but have been shown in other studies to be more closely related to other ingoid genera and we restrict the name Albizia s.s. to the species from Africa, Madagascar, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific. Twenty-one new nomenclatural combinations in Pseudalbizzia are proposed, including 16 species and 5 infraspecific varietal names. In addition to the type species Pseudalbizziaberteroana, the genus has 17 species distributed across tropical regions of the Americas, including the Caribbean. Finally, a new infrageneric classification into five sections is proposed and a distribution map of the species of Pseudalbizzia is presented.