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Systematics Of Malesian-Pacific Piper (Piperaceae), Rani Asmarayani

Dissertations

Comprised of ~2400 spp., Piper is a major clade in the magnoliid angiosperms. Three major groups are recognized in Piper, i.e., the Neotropical, Asian and South Pacific. Unlike Neotropical Piper,relationships in the Paleotropical Piper remain enigmatic. This study focused on the Paleotropical Piperwith emphasize on the Malesian-Pacific Piper, Malesia being the center of diversity of the genus in the Paleotropics. The goals are to evaluate relationships within Paleotropical Piper (chapter 1), to evaluate characters, morphological (chapter 1) and stem anatomical (chapter 2), that may distinguish clades, and to investigate the species boundaries focusing on the well-supported …