CoverHitchenia glauca. This rare member of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) is restricted to monsoonal forest margins and grasslands in central Myanmar. The conspicuous floral parts are highly modified sterile stamens, or staminodia. Results of phylogenetic analyses based on molecular data have provided new information on relationships among the 50+ genera of the family and form the basis for a new classification as well as setting the stage for investigations of the biogeographic history and floral character evolution in this tropical group of monocots. See Kress, Prince, and Williams: The phylogeny and a new classification of the gingers (Zingiberaceae): evidence from molecular data, pp. 1682-1696 in the previous issue (vol. 89, no. 10). Photo credit: W. J. Kress.
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Copyright © 2003 by the Botanical Society of America, Inc.
