Published phylogenies of two eucalypt clades, red bloodwoods 'Corymbia' subgenus 'Corymbia' and eudesmids 'Eucalyptus' subgenus 'Eudesmia' (Myrtaceae), were combined for an analysis of historical biogeographical area relationships within continental Australia. The method of paralogy-free subtree analysis was used to eliminate geographical paralogy; the paralogy-free subtrees were coded as characters for parsimony analysis to find the minimal and area cladogram, which proved to be informative of a continent-wide pattern. The eucalypt fossil record and molecular dating studies allow an interpretation of the biogeographical history in terms of major vicariance events that date from the early Paleogene. The summary area cladogram shows the wet jarrah forest region of South-West Western Australia, a region of high endemism, as the earliest to differentiate from all other areas, isolated by marine inundation across southern Australia and climatic cooling in the Late Eocene–Early Oligocene. From about this time, regionalization continued, with warmer conditions and monsoonal climate developing in central and northern Australia, and cooling in the south-east. Northern and eastern humid and semi-humid areas were related as a track, but with increased aridity in the interior of the continent, the monsoonal climate contracted northwards. The Australian Monsoon Tropics (AMT: Kimberley, Top End, Arnhem, Cape York and inland north-east Queensland) differentiated from eastern areas (Queensland wet tropics to McPherson–Macleay). Our results also show all arid and semi-arid regions as related, suggestive of a historically cohesive interior biota rather than repeated colonizations of the interior from the periphery of the continent. Climate largely differentiates hot arid areas in the north (Pilbara, Northern and Central deserts) from arid areas in the south (south-west interzone, Wheatbelt, Goldfields and Great Victoria Desert).

Phylogenetic analysis of Eucalyptus subgenus 'Eudesmia' is presented on the basis of the following three datasets: sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and the external transcribed spacer (ETS) regions from nuclear rDNA, sequences of the psbA–trnHintergenic spacer region from chloroplastDNA,and morphological characters, including stamen bundling, operculum development, seeds and trichomes. Studies of floral development were essential for understanding the morphology of mature flowers and interpretation of synapomorphy and homoplasy. A summary phylogeny was constructed from a maximum parsimony analysis of those nodes coded as characters that had support in the molecular trees together with morphological characters. A revised infra-subgeneric classification is presented on the basis of the summary phylogeny, and compared with classifications of Hill and Johnson (1998) and Brooker (2000). Differences relate to relationships between clades and taxonomic rank (sections, series and subseries) and valid names of Brooker (2000) are conserved where possible. One main clade of 14 species (section Limbatae), many of mallee growth form, was found in all analyses; this clade is distributed in the South-West of Western Australia and adjacent Interzone and desert areas. A second main clade (section Complanatae) occurs in the northern and eastern tropical and subtropical regions of Australia, including Kimberley, Arnhem, Queensland and NewSouth Wales. This section includes 'E. tetrodonta', previously treated as an isolated taxon in a monotypic section; however, this species is related to 'E. baileyana', 'E. similis', 'E. lirata' and series 'Miniatae'. The hypothesised phylogeny provides a framework for further analyses of biogeography and ecology, including functional traits.

• Premise of the study: The broad austral distribution of Schoeneae is almost certainly a product of long-distance dispersal. Owing to the inadequacies of existing phylogenetic data and a lack of rigorous biogeographic analysis, relationships within the tribe remain poorly resolved and its pattern of radiation and dispersal uncertain. We employed an expanded sampling of taxa and markers and a rigorous analytic approach to address these limitations. We evaluated the roles of geography and ecology in stimulating the initial radiation of the group and its subsequent dispersal across the southern hemisphere. • Methods: A dated tree was reconstructed using reversible-jump Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) with a polytomy prior and molecular dating, applied to data from two nuclear and three cpDNA regions. Ancestral areas and habitats were inferred using dispersal-extinction-cladogenesis models. • Key results: Schoeneae originated in Australia in the Paleocene. The existence of a "hard" polytomy at the base of the clade refl ects the rapid divergence of six principal lineages ca. 50 Ma, within Australia. From this ancestral area, Schoeneae have traversed the austral oceans with remarkable frequency, a total of 29 distinct dispersal events being reported here. Dispersal rates between landmasses are not explicable in terms of the geographical distances separating them. Transoceanic dispersal generally involved habitat stasis. • Conclusions: Although the role of dispersal in explaining global distribution patterns is now widely accepted, the apparent ease with which such dispersal may occur has perhaps been under-appreciated. In Schoeneae, transoceanic dispersal has been remarkably frequent, with ecological opportunity, rather than geography, being most important in dictating dispersal patterns.

Pseudogenes from the 18S-5.8S-26S cistron of nuclear ribosomal DNA are reported in the eucalypt group (Myrtaceae), which includes seven genera. Putative pseudogenes are identified by a range of sequence comparisons including: the number of CpG and CpNpG methylation sites, GC content, estimated secondary structure stability of internal transcribed spacer transcripts, the presence of conserved motifs, patterns of sequence relationships and inferred substitution patterns. These comparisons indicate that pseudogenes are widespread, being evident in 'Eucalyptus' (subgenera 'Eucalyptus' and 'Eudesmia'), 'Corymbia' (extracodical sections 'Rufaria, Ochraria and Blakearia'), 'Angophora, Stockwellia quadrifida' and 'Arillastrum gummiferum'. At least six sequences used in previous phylogenetic studies are identified as pseudogenes, and a further 10 pseudogenes are newly sequenced here. Gene trees place pseudogenes in a number of distinct lineages: pseudogenes from Eucalyptus group with other Eucalyptus sequences, those from 'Corymbia' and 'Angophora' group with other 'Corymbia/Angophora' sequences, that from Stockwellia groups with other sequences from the Eucalyptopsis group, and that from 'Arillastrum' is placed as sister to the other included sequence of 'Arillastrum'. Some pseudogenes in Eucalyptus, 'Corymbia' and 'Angophora' represent "deep" ribosomal DNA paralogues that pre-date species differentiation in these groups, and a recombination analysis shows no evidence of recombination between putative pseudogenes and their functional counterparts. The presence of divergent paralogues presents both challenges and opportunities for the reconstruction of eucalypt phylogenies using ribosomal DNA sequences. Phylogenetic data sets should include only orthologous sequences, but different paralogues potentially provide additional, independent, character sets for phylogenetic analyses.

Infra- and suprageneric classification of 'Schoenus' is uncertain. Like other Cyperaceae, 'Schoenus' L. and allied genera have reduced vegetative and reproductive structures which have resulted in uncertain homologies and hence differences in opinion about its phylogenetic relationships. This study addresses the issues of phylogeny, species limits and usefulness of anatomical data in the genus. Phylogenetic analysis of 195 ingroup samples made up of 123 samples covering 74 species of 'Schoenus' and 72 samples across 56 species from 11 genera in tribe Schoeneae was conducted on a molecular sequence dataset from ITS nrDNA using maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference. Results indicated that 'Schoenus' is non-monophyletic, which corroborates small-scale previous molecular studies. 'Schoenus' subgen. 'Schoenus' had strongly supported lineages whereas S. subgen. 'Pseudomesomelaena', including 'S. grandiflorus', are embedded within other genera in Schoeneae and therefore not in core 'Schoenus'. The ITS data did not fully resolve relationships of 'Schoenus' at species level, but revealed numerous well supported terminal groupings and taxa allowing for further fine-scale study of the complexes to resolve limits and application of names. ... Taxonomic value of culm anatomy has been investigated using phenetic analysis. The results show culm anatomical features have taxonomic value in 'Schoenus' at and below species level and help to clarify patterns of variation at infra and interspecific level and to resolve species complexes. Phylogenetic analysis, however, indicated that the dataset had no power to resolve higher level relationships within 'Schoenus'. A new species has been distinguished from 'S. melanostachys' using morphology and integrating evidence from culm anatomy and scanning electron microscopy.