Document Type

Article

Department/Program

Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Publication Date

2000

Journal

Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden

Volume

87

First Page

528

Last Page

548

Abstract

Detailed descriptions, habitat preferences, geographic ranges, and representative specimens are given for the 13 taxa of the Acacia coulteri group from Mexico, Central America, and the southwestern United States. These species form a distinct group within Acacia series Vulgares, lacking prickles and usually having persistent stipules. A principal components analysis (PCA) of vegetative and floral features shows that the specimens examined form discrete units in plots of the first three principal components. The groups established by PCA mostly coincide with previously described species. The taxa within this group are phenetically similar, sharing many morphological features. These data also suggest that there is occasional gene flow between species, but that hybrids are not common. About half the species have restricted ranges (A. compacta, A. dolichostachya, A. durangensis, A. millefolia, A. russelliana, A. sericea, and A. willardiana), but the remainder are wide-ranging, either from Oaxaca and Puebla north into central and northern Mexico (A. acatlensis, A. coulteri, A. mammifera, and A. salazari), or south into Central America (A. centralis and A. usumacintensis).

DOI

doi 10.2307/2666144

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