@mjpapay @jayhorn @sedgesrock @graham_g @robertarcher397 @nicky @ludwig_muller @jeremygilmore @tonyrebelo @botaneek @troos @adriaan_grobler @zorille @bobwardell @carber @yvettevanwijk1941 @margl @kelsey414
...continued from https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/milewski/73269-plasticfruits-the-case-of-chenopodium-amaranthaceae#
The herbaceous genus Dioscorea (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/13836_2021_94 and https://biblio.iita.org/documents/U11InbkBhattacharjeeDioscoreaNothomDev.pdf-61e9e4ea95947bbb95aa36658f29059c.pdf) contains more than 600 spp.
It occurs on all vegetated continents, and many islands (please scroll to map in http://sanjeetbiotech.blogspot.com/2012/11/dioscoreaceae-family-of-flowering.html).
There is significant variation in the vegetative features. For example:
However, the variation in the fruits of Dioscorea is extreme (https://idtools.org/seed_families/index.cfm?packageID=1140&entityID=5525).
Many spp. are 'doubly-adapted for dispersal by wind, by virtue of wings on both the fruits and the seeds; by contrast, a few are so clearly adapted for dispersal in the gastrointestinal tracts of birds that they were formerly assumed to constitute a separate genus (Tamus).
CAPSULES
A clade of spp. in Brazil, in which the plants are short, has round, wingless capsules (https://www.biotaxa.org/Phytotaxa/article/view/phytotaxa.163.4.3 and https://www.scielo.br/j/hoehnea/a/jvRrZ6KKC5rYwx7bXfk96sF/?lang=en&format=html and https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12225-016-9635-8).
Most of the sections and spp. of Dioscorea bear winged, dehiscent capsules, containing seeds that
The following show the winged, dehiscent capsules in various spp. in Australia, Asia, and North America:
Also please see http://www.namethatplant.net/picpage.shtml?path=/Images/ImagesFire/s0/s071011_ab2.jpg&plant=476&photo=8077 and http://www.namethatplant.net/plantdetail.shtml?plant=476.
SAMARAS
One section (Rajania, restricted to the Caribbean islands) has samaras (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/224790v1.full and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samara_(fruit) and https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2018.0053 and https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/914933-Dioscorea-cordata) instead of capsules (https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.specimen.k000099322 and https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.specimen.k000099330).
BERRIES
Most relevant for this Post, one 'infragenus', namely Tamus, has succulent, bright-hued fruits (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/168975065), and several other clades within Dioscorea also have fleshy fruits, or fruits intermediate between dehiscent capsules and fleshy fruits (e.g. Dioscorea ovinala and Dioscorea anataly of Madagascar, https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/aspt/sb/2005/00000030/00000004/art00005 and https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250054391_A_Plastid_Gene_Phylogeny_Of_the_Yam_Genus_Dioscorea_Roots_Fruits_and_Madagascar).
The best-known examples are Dioscorea communis (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/82691-Dioscorea-communis) and Dioscorea orientalis (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/496089-Dioscorea-orientalis), which occur in the Canary Islands and Madeira (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaronesia), Europe, the Maghreb, the Caucasus, and the Levant.
It is remarkable enough that a single genus stretches from samaras (with specialised dispersal of the diaspore by wind) to fleshy fruits (with specialised dispersal and sowing by birds).
However, what is particularly remarkable is that the variation in fruit-form cuts across the clades within the genus. This suggests that variation in fruit-form has arisen independently, in the evolutionary process, repeatedly within Dioscorea.
Dioscorea communis and D. orientalis, bearing red berries attractive to seed-dispersing birds, are most closely related to section Borderea, in which the fruits are capsules, containing seeds that lack wings (https://academic.oup.com/aob/article-abstract/131/4/635/6995440?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false and see Fig. 2a, on page 190, in https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/apg/71/3/71_202003/_pdf).
CONCLUSIONS
In summary, fleshy fruits within Dioscorea are clearly-defined morphologically and adaptively, but poorly-defined phylogenetically. This further exemplifies the evolutionary plasticity of fruits within genera worldwide - which is the focus of this series of Posts.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF FLESHY FRUITS (succulent berries) IN DIOSCOREA:
Dioscorea communis:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/134028799
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/171461763
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/167520182
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146785572
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143725011
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141252088
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-young-blackcap-sylvia-atricapilla-and-black-bryony-tamus-communis-28187925.html?imageid=3B3FC1F6-6E4C-4CEA-96A6-19903E9F6CC3&p=70471&pn=1&searchId=258e88c085469378f74257459438288a&searchtype=0
https://www.alamy.com/kingfisher-alcedo-atthis-female-kingfisher-perched-amongst-black-bryony-tamus-communis-england-autumn-image184124218.html?imageid=BE5DAA3B-5601-412D-A7EB-E40E89F291C9&p=703368&pn=1&searchId=258e88c085469378f74257459438288a&searchtype=0
https://www.alamy.com/stock-image-scarlet-berries-of-black-bryony-tamus-communis-hanging-from-a-tree-163016632.html?imageid=40F845D2-723A-4639-B446-F98671953773&p=75359&pn=1&searchId=258e88c085469378f74257459438288a&searchtype=0
Dioscorea orientalis:
https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:20005756-1/images
https://www.jungledragon.com/specie/23942/dioscorea_orientalis.html
Comments
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-662-56324-3_44-1
The fruits of Dioscorea communis have a pre-ripe display in early autumn:
https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/107411/view/black-bryony-tamus-communis-berries
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/132923260
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/136164612
In late autumn, they become all the more conspicuous because they persist after the leaves wither and fall:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139985438
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/138863732
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/138362542
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/135285013
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/136616339
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/04/country-diary-wenlock-edge-evans-berries-sloe-bryony-elderberries-birds-thrushes
https://atrampinthewoods.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/poison-pie-black-bryony/
https://laidbackgardener.blog/2019/06/15/garden-myth-if-you-see-birds-eating-berries-theyre-edible/
http://www.wlgf.org/bryony.html
https://www.flickr.com/photos/71183136@N08/6431567955
https://www.bettsecology.co.uk/insight/a-bit-of-fruity-winter-botany
https://chestofbooks.com/flora-plants/flowers/British-Wild-Flowers-1/Black-Bryony-Tamus-Communis-L.html
https://galloptodiscover.weebly.com/bryony-plant-poisoning.html
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01916122.2019.1690067
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/dioscoreaceae
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jbi.12678
https://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/FFPA/key/FFPA/Media/Html/Dioscoreaceae.htm
https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxon=Dioscorea
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=110295
https://www.delta-intkey.com/famfs/www/diosco.htm
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1007/s10310-008-0106-4
https://bioone.org/journals/the-journal-of-the-torrey-botanical-society/volume-132/issue-2/1095-5674_2005_132_187_WDOVBO_2.0.CO_2/Water-dispersal-of-vegetative-bulbils-of-the-invasive-exotic-Dioscorea/10.3159/1095-5674(2005)132[187:WDOVBO]2.0.CO;2.short
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2020.00496/full
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7555206/
YUCCA is another example of plasticfruits:
http://www.highplainsgardening.com/plant-lists/southwest-evergreens-yuccas
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