Happy new year 2008

Arbutus unedo L. © Emilio Laguna, 2005, Chania (Crete, Greece)

Our blog wishes a happy year 2008 for all the visitors and thre FILMED research teams and collaborators. By the end of January 2008, the blog will be 1 year old!!!

A couple of recommended lectures for Christmas? 1) Please visit the publications webpage of Dr. Gideon Rosenbaum (http://www.earth.uq.edu.au/rosenbaum/Publications.html) to find most of its cellebrated papers on the geological changes in the Mediterranean bassin during the Tertiary and Early Quaternary. 2) A good review (in Spanish) on the Iberian distribution of Arbutus unedo and data on other Mediterranean apecies is available as a sample for contibutors of the scientifical journal ANTILIA: http://www.ucm.es/info/antilia/asignatura/practicas/trabajos_ciencia/arbutus.htm

FILMED sampling goes on!

The edible berries of Arbutus unedo are sold in the popular market (Medina) of Fez, Morocco. ©Fernando Boisset, November 2007

Until the end of november, the research team of FILMED (including collaborators as Errol Vela and P. Pablo Ferrer) have sampled up to 239 populations of all the species involved in the project, from Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Morocco, Algeria, Greece and Israel. The last expedition (Northern Morocco, November 2007) was done by Drs. Joan Pedrola and Fernando Boisset (University of Valencia) and P. Pablo Ferrer (CIEF). The sampling activities will continue during the next months, entering 2008.

Some news on parallel projects: about the Iberian Palm Trees

Remainders of Phoenix iberica plant communities near the bay of El Gorguel (Cartagena, Murcia), living with the Mediterranean palmetto (Chamaerops humilis). ©E. Laguna, 2007

A mixed team leaded of Spanish researchers by Drs. Diego Rivera (University of Murcia), Concepción Obón (University Miguel Hernández, Elche) and Emilio Laguna (CIEF, Quart de Poblet-Valencia) goes on with a project to know the variability and taxonomic position of several species of Phoenix around the Mediterranean sea, mainly focused on the possible validity of several taxa neglected (Ph. atlantica) or still unrecognised (Ph. atlantica, Ph. chevalieri). The research has been funded by the Generalitat Valenciana (works on the taxonomic position of Ph. iberica) and the Spanish Programme R+D+i on Phytogenetic Resources (studies on the variability of cultivated varieties of Ph. dactylifera and their hybrids). Former results using more than 60 characters (both anatomic-morphologic and genetic variables after molecular analyses) show that Ph. iberica can be considered as an independent taxa from Ph. dactylifera, at similar level than Ph. theophrasti (so being both species Werstern and Esatern Mediterranean vicariants). The results have been presented at the 5th International Synposium on the Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants (Wageningen, 15-19 October 2007) and the XIIth OPTIMA meeting (Pisa, 10-16 September 2007), and are currently submitted and accepted to be published in the next issue of Acta Horticulturae. The current research yields that Ph. iberica could be an Iberian or Ibero-North African endemism still living through isolated groups in salt rivers and bays near the sea, buth mostly hybridized with Ph. dactylifera. Ph. iberica seeds are round-tip, smaller and more smooth than Ph. dactylifera ones. Their dates are unedible and their trunks use to be wider (sometimes like those of Ph. canariensis). The seeds of the current populations of Ph. iberica (from Southern Alicante to Almeria provinces) have the same shape and external characters than those found in archaeological remainders of the cellebrated 'Cueva de los Tiestos' (Jumilla, Murcia), 5.500 y. BP -so close to 3.000 years before the introduction of Ph. dactylifera in Spain-.

Seeds of Phoenix dactylifera x iberica (left) and small-sized, round-tip forms of Ph. dactylifera (right). © E. Laguna, 2007