[Taxacom] Nothofagus (Chile-New Zealand distributions)

[Piero Delprete]

You have also to consider if the seeds are salt-water resistent.

Piero G. Delprete - Herbier de Guyane,  IRD - UMR AMAP, Boite Postale 165, 
97323 Cayenne Cedex, Guyane Francaise (French Guiana), France - Tel. +33 
0594297250 - Fax +33 0594307315 - http://www.cayenne.ird.fr/aublet2

On Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:54:37 +1200 (NZST)
  "Geoffrey Read" <gread at actrix.gen.nz> wrote:
>
>
>>>> On 26/07/2010 at 2:54 p.m., Kenneth Kinman  wrote:
>
> "Rafting directly across the Pacific from Chile to New Zealand could
>not
> only explain the distribution of Nothofagus (subgenus Fuscospora),
>but
> any number of little critters (insects, fungi, or whatever) that may
> have hitched a ride."
>
> Directly across the Pacific around 40s -50s latitude South would be
>New
> Zealand to Chile.
>
> Chile being mostly on the west coast of S. America, it is expected
>to
> *receive* in the West Wind Drift / Antarctic Circumpolar Current
>whatever
> New Zealand rafts off to it across the Pacific, more commonly than
>the
> reverse scenario, which must go from the Magellan region right
>across the
> *Atlantic* then past southern Africa first into the Pacific.
>
> Ken again on 27/07/2010:
>>         Question:  If a large Nothofagus tree (with
>> ripening fruit attached), or an island-like clump of a number of
>>such
>> trees, floated in fast-moving currents from Chile to New Zealand,
>>would
>> some of the ectomycorrhizae in their roots survive the journey?  If
>>so,
>> such dispersal of whole trees would preserve the symbiosis. The
>>fruits
>> release their seeds and the fungus (or its spores) is also there to
>> continue the symbiosis in New Zealand.  Nothofagus driftwood is
>>known to
>> have floated from South America to Tasmania, so the shorter trip to
>>New
>> Zealand would presumably be an even less rare event.
>>              --------Ken
>
> It's further away W to E - slightly (in the context of an around the
>world
> trip), at 2000 km or so.
>
> Geoff
>
>
>
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