Ididaceae evolved from Australia/antactic region and spread first to
Africa ( cape region) and from there north to Europe. They evolved to
deal with dry conditions initially. Probably not able to evolve
quickly enough to adapt to wet climate, competition would have been
very high. The are the largest plant group in cape and , southern
Africa.
There is one group that is woody, and up to 6 feet tall.
Chuck Chapman
-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Kramb <dkramb@badbear.com>
To: iris-species <iris-species@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Mon, Mar 24, 2014 4:16 pm
Subject: Re: [iris-species] The Iris Family Natural History and
Classification
Â
Janos, that was the first book I bought! Actually I think it was a
Christmas present given to me shortly after I got hooked on irises.Â
I've purchased a couple more books since then, but I always considered
Kohlein's the best (of my collection). These days I'm deeply intrigued
about tropical American irids, and I thought this new book might cover
them. But if it's South African focused, then I'm probably not
interested.
So that's another thing that started bothering me recently. There are
*SO* *MANY* tropical American irids. Yet the distribution map of irids
in Africa clearly shows NONE in the tropical rainforests of Africa (but
they exist north, south, and west of the jungle). That's illogical to
me. I wonder what happened to them? Anyway...... just a rhetorical
question.
Thanks for the feedback, everybody!
Dennis in Cincinnati
