Geography 316:  Biogeography    

Thank you for visiting our site. This web pages was written by a student in Geography 316: Biogeography and edited by the instructor, Barbara Holzman, PhD.  All photos and maps are posted with specific copyright permission for the express use of education on these web pages. The students have tried to be as accurate as possible with the information provided and sources and references are cited at the end of each page.

The Biogeography of

 Ghost Flower ( Mohavea confertiflora)

 Also known as Mojave Flower (Antirrhium confertiflorum, Mohavea viscida)

 

 (Abrams, 1951)

        Kingdom:           Plantae

                Subkingdom:         Tracheobionta (Vascular Plants)

                        Superdivision:         Spermatophyta (Seed Plants)

                                Division:         Magnoliophya (Flowering Plants)

                                       Class:         Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledons)

                                                Subclass:           Asteridae

                                                        Order:         Scrophularales

                                                                Familiy:         Scrophulariaceae

                                                                            Genus:         Mohavea

                                                                                        Species:         Mohavea confertiflora

 

 GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

     Ghost Flower (Mohavea confertiflora) is a translucent flower with cream to yellow colored petals.  The 1 to 1.5 inch (2.5 – 3.8 cm) flower with five rugged lobes which form a cup has pink to purple dots on the inside surface.  The lower petal has a reddish-purple dot with two bright yellow stamens that curve up over it.  An erect annual, it has a height that ranges from 4 to 16 inches (10 – 41 cm) and long hairy, light green leaves that are up to 4 inches (10 cm) long.  The fruit is 10 –12 mm2. 

NATURAL HISTORY:   

          Mohavea confertiflora is common in both desserts on sandy or gravelly soil in sandy washes and on dry slopes below 3000 ft.  Mohavea confertiflora will tolerate extremely poor soils, provided that they are light and sandy or gravelly in areas where summers are hot and dry and the winters are wet.  It exists in the Colorado and Mojave Deserts west to Daggett and Ord Mountains, to Lower California, Arizona and Nevada.  Also exists in the Sonoran Desert. 

     Ghost Flower blooms from February to April and is an annual shrub with the growing habit of a forb/herb.  Mohavea confertiflora sprouts, blooms, drops its seeds and dies during a single rainy season, leaving behind seeds for the coming season.  The seed has many wings, which makes it easier for the plant to disperse.   The reproduction type is pollination.  The plant is a hermaphrodite.

 DISRIBUTION:

           The family Scrophulariaceae occurs worldwide, although the family Mohavea occurs in deserst environments and has only two species, Mohavea breviflora and Mohavea confertiflora.

 Mohavea confertiflora is native to California and considered an endemic.  It also has a confined, continuous distribution to the Deserts of the American Southwest in particular the states of California, Nevada and Arizona, and also Northern Mexico in the Sonoran Desert area.

Distribution of Ghostflower

 

 EVOLUTION:

    The evolution of Mohavea confertiflora is difficult to pinpoint.  As stated above this genus has only two species: Mohavea breviflora and Mohavea confertiflora.  The evolution of the family, Scrophulariaceae, however is depicted in the figure below.  The angiosperms and gymnosperms deviated from one another is early plant evolution.  The angiosperms than diversified into monocots and dicots.  The evolution of the these two classes is further split into separate categories in which the sequencing of the MAD supergene family and gene duplication within the family of genes are responsible for the morphological characteristics that are observed in plants today. 

    The term MADS is an acronym for four genes that contain a conserved 56 amino acid sequence which is referred to as the MADS box.   These genes include the minichromosome maintenance gene (MCM1) from fungi, AGAMOUS (AG) and DEFICIENS (DEF) genes from plants and the serum response factor gene (SRF) from animals.  Molecular and biochemical studies of SRF and MCM1 have shown that these MADS genes code transcription factors and that the MADS box is necessary for DNA binding, dimerization, and accessory-factor interactions.  The X-ray crystal structure of the SRF protein supports these results.  A MADS gene tree was constructed (below) using the sequences of 75 plant MADS genes, representing 10 families.  (Hasebe, 1997).

(Hasebe, 1997)

    There are at least two different evolutionary fates for a pair of MADS genes might have following gene duplication.  First, both the duplicated genes can diverge somewhat in function, yet work as a pair such that each is indispensable for thier original or new function(s).  The second fate of the duplicated genes is for one sister gene to retain and the other to lose the original function of the ancestral gene; once the original function is lost the gene may either become a pseudo gene or gain a new function(s).  The changes in the regulatory interactions among MADS genes have also played important roles in the evolution of plant morphology.  (Hasebe, 1997).

    Most of the plant MADS gene groups diversified before the divergence of angiosperms and gymnosperms. Studies of plant MADS genes in ferns indicate that most of the plant MADS groups diversified before the divergence between ferns and seed plants.  (Hasebe, 1997).

 Footnote: Not that much information is available for this flower, although pictures are available at http://www.calflora.com/

REFERENCES:

 Abrams, Leroy.  1951.  Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States Washington, Oregon and California Vol. III.  Stanford, CA.  Stanford University Press. 

Barrett, Spencer, Lawrence Harder and Anne Worley.  1997.  "A Comparative Biology of Pollination and Mating in Flowering Plants."  pp.57-76         In    Silvertown, Jonathan, Miguel Franco and John L. Harper.  United Kingdom.  Cambridge University Press. 

Chandler, Katherine.  1922.  As California Wildflowers Grow.    San Francisco, CA.  Harr Wagner Publishing Company.

Clausen, Jens.  1951.  Stages in the Evolution of Plant Species.  Ithaca, NY.  Cornell University Press. 

Collins, Barbara.  1979.  Key to Wildflowers of the Deserts of Southern California.  Thousand Oaks, CA.  California Lutheran College Press.

 Eyre, Samuel.  1968.  Vegetation and Soils, 2nd. Ed.  Chicago, IL.  Aldine Publishing Company.

 Good, Ronald.  1956.  Features of Evolution in the Flowering Plants.  New York, NY.   Longmans, Green and Company.

Griffiths, Mark and Anthony Huxley and Margot Lewy (ed.s).  1992.  The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening  vol.3.  New York, New York.  The Stockton Press.

Hasebe, Mitsuyasu and Jo Ann Banks.  1997.  "Evolution of MADS Gene Family in Plants."  pp.179-197.  In Iwatsuki, K. and P.H. Ravens,eds.  Evolution and Diversification of Land PLants.  Tokyo: Spring-Verlag. 

Holsinger, Kent and Jennifer Steinbachs.  1997.  “Mating Systems and Evolution in Flowering Plants.” pp.223-248  In Iwatsuki, K and P.H. Ravens, eds.  Evolution and Diversification of Land Plants.  Tokyo: Spring-Verlag.

Kenrick, Paul and Peter R. Crane.  1997.  The Origin of Diversification of Land Plants A Cladistic Study.  Washington, London.  Smithsonian Intstitution Press.

MacDougal, Daniel.  1971.  Botanical Features of North American Deserts.   New York, NY. Johnson Reprinting Company.

MacFarlane, John.  1933.  The Evolution and Distribution of Flowering Plants.   Philadelphia, PN.  Noel Printing Company.

 McGinnies, William.  1981.  Discovering the Desert.  Tucson, AZ.  University of Arizona Press. 

Munz, Philip.  1933.  A Manual of Southern California Botany.  Claremont, CA.  Claremont College Scripps Publishing Fund.

Niklas, Karl.  1997.  The Evolutionary Biology of Plants.  Chicago, IL.  University of Chicago Press.     

Robichaux, Robert (ed.).  1999.  Ecology of Sonoran Desert Plants and Plant Communities.  Tucson, AZ.  University of Arizona Press.

 Shreve, Forrest and Ira Wiggins.  1964.  Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert. Stanford, CA.  Stanford University Press. 

Soltis, Douglas, Carola Hibsch-Jetter, Pamela Soltis, Mark Chase and James Farris.  1997.  "Molecular Phylogenetic Relationships Among Angiosperms: An Overview Based on rbcL and !8S rDNA Sequences.  pp.157-178  In Iwatsuki, K and P.H. Ravens, eds.  Evolution and Diversification of Land Plants.  Tokyo: Spring-Verlag. 

 Turner, Raymond, Janice Bowers and Tony Burgess.  1995.  Sonoran Desert Plants An Ecological Atlas.  Tucson, AZ.  University of Arizona Press.

 USDA, NRCS.  2002.  The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov/).  National Plants Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.   [Oct. 14, 2002]