Format: ORAL

Nabasmita Malakar1. 2., GudasalamaniRavikanth1, K. Praveen Karanth3, Ganesan Rengaian1

1 Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore, India 2 Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India 3 Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India

The Asian genus Machilus (Lauraceae - wild relative of avocadoes) is widely distributed in South and Southeast Asia. The systematic profiling of the group has suffered from the lack of integrative taxonomic approach across the distributional range, including India. Historically, the taxonomic revision of Machilus in the Indo-Burmese region (Chakrabarty et al. 2022) did not improve the taxonomy and distribution. In this study, we used integrative taxonomic approach to delineate taxonomy, distribution, and phylogenetic relationship of Machilus macranthus Nees, (endemic to the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka hotspot), and M. glaucescens (Nees) Wight, (Indo-Burma region). We integrated morphological, molecular (nuclear and chloroplast), and distribution data to elucidate the systematic relationship. We collected individuals in flowering and fruiting from Assam, Meghalaya, and Mizoram of the Northeastern region of India and Western Ghats of south India. We sequenced the collections using two nuclear markers (ITS and LEAFY) and one chloroplast marker (trnL-trnF) for the phylogenetic analysis. We further explored 27 morphological characteristics for cluster analysis and extensively mapped the distribution of the species through primary and secondary sources. Cluster analysis using morphological characters, the distribution range as well as phylogenetic relationship confirms that M. macranthus and M. glaucescens are two distinct species and reflected two distinct distributional ranges. The phylogenetic result also supports the hypothesis that both are two distinct species. Our integrative taxonomic approach proved to be better to understand the systematics of species belongs to Machilus genus and could shed light on the origin and biogeography of the genus Machilus in the Asiatic region.