Resource partitioning has been hypothesized to play a role in the maintenance of tree diversity in tropical forests. We looked for evidence of light and soil moisture partitioning among seedlings of four native Malagasy tree species, the pioneer, gap-adapted species Harungana madagascariensis and the three shade-tolerant species Ocotea cymosa, Stephanostegia capuronii and Uapaca ferruginea. Fou...

African snake-eyed skinks are relatively small lizards of the genera Panaspis and Afroablepharus. Species allocation of these genera frequently changed during the 20th century based on morphology, ecology, and biogeography. Members of these genera occur primarily in savanna habitats throughout sub-Saharan Africa and include species whose highly conserved morphology poses challenges for taxonomi...

The diversity of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi on adult trees and seedlings of five species, Anthonotha fragrans, Anthonotha macrophylla, Cryptosepalum tetraphyllum, Paramacrolobium coeruleum and Uapaca esculenta, was determined in a tropical rain forest of Guinea. Ectomycorrhizae were sampled within a surface area of 1600 m(2), and fungal taxa were identified by sequencing the rDNA Internal Tran...

From the chemical investigations of root bark Uapaca guineensis, nine distinct compounds (1–9) have been isolated and characterized as lupeol, betulin, betulinic acid, β-amyryl acetate, physcion, quercetin, rutin, β-sitosterol, β-sitosterol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, respectively. The structures all established using their NMR data well comparison those with ones reported in literature. Interesti...

Abstract Interspecific associations may limit the dispersal of individual species, but also facilitate it when entire co-evolved systems expand their geographic ranges. We tested recent proposal that episodic land bridges linked Africa and Madagascar at three stages during Cenozoic by comparing divergence estimates Madagascar’s angiosperm taxa with mechanisms. Plants rely on gravity for seed in...