Cryptic species in an ancient flowering‐plant lineage (Hydatellaceae, Nymphaeales) revealed by molecular and micromorphological data
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The flora of the southwestern Australian biodiversity hotspot is rich in endemic species, many of which remain to be discovered or properly described; estimates of species diversity and levels of endemism should take into account the possible occurrence of cryptic species. Here we explore taxonomic diversity in a Western Australian lineage belonging to the primarily Australian genus Trithuria, the sole genus of Hydatellaceae (Nymphaeales). Recent molecular evidence supports the existence of cryptic species in self‐pollinating members of section Trithuria . We investigate Western Australian plants currently classified as T. australis s.l., a self‐pollinating member of the section Hydatella . Using evidence from microsatellite data (SSRs), an expanded molecular phylogenetic analysis based on four plastid markers, and fruit micromorphology, we suggest that material traditionally classified as T. australis s.l. belongs to at least four species. Two species occur in the northern part of the distribution range of the group (31° S to 33°27′ S), and two in the southern part (33°27′ S to 35° S). Each northern species has distinctive fruit micromorphology not recorded in other members of the genus. The two southern species are well characterized by molecular characters and seem to be allopatric, but lack obvious morphological differences from each other. We describe one of the northern species as T. fitzgeraldii sp. nov. However, clarifying the names of the other three species is currently problematic as T. australis and another available name are based on collections made 117 years ago, from localities distant from any subsequent records of Hydatellaceae. Based on genome size estimations, we also demonstrate two ploidy levels in the T. australis complex. Our study supports the view that species diversity in Hydatellaceae is strongly underestimated.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".