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Conservation of convergent forms? Untangling ambiguous lineages in a threatened cactus
Baughman, Jessica
Baughman, Jessica
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2025-12-01
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Cactaceae is a family of great conservation concern, with commensurate resource allocation, which exemplifies rapid radiation associated with expanding aridity and shifts in phenotype and pollination regimes. Echinocereus fendleri, a species complex of four varieties with distinct morphologies, inhabits the American transition into the northernmost Chihuahuan Desert, with most of its range in the US state of New Mexico. One variety, E. fendleri var. kuenzleri or Kuenzler’s hedgehog cactus, has received federal and state protection since its 1979 Endangered Species Act listing. Previous studies focused on the significance of its morphology, geography, and habitat requirements, while the current study focuses on reconstructing the E. fendleri phylogeny with genomic data. These data show that E. fendleri var. kuenzleri, the threatened variety, includes six populations, five of which form a moderately supported clade and one of which is found in a clade nested in populations of E. fendleri var. fendleri. No evidence is found for gene flow involving the outlier population of E. fendleri var. kuenzleri in Lincoln County, a process that might explain its phylogenetic position. We conclude that Echinocereus fendleri var. kuenzleri’s distinct morphology, the extreme derived end of a continuum of traits, has arisen twice in this species history. At the opposite end of that continuum, traits seen in E. fendleri var. rectispinus appear as ancestral to the species. At a pinpoint scale, the convergent forms of this phenotypically plastic species lead to further questions regarding the selection pressures potentially at work.
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Thesis (M.S.)-- Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Biological Sciences
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Wichita State University
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© Copyright 2025 by Jessica R. Baughman
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