XIEG Holds 19th Salon for Scientific Exchange

The Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) held the 19th “Salon for Scientific Exchange” (SSE) on May 17. The event attracted over 30 Chinese and foreign experts and students.

Prof. Alexander Sukhorukov gave a presentation titled “Integrative methods in botany: A case study of the seed evolution and its ecological consequences in the desert Azioaceae family”. This family consists of about 2400 species, mainly distributed in South Africa. Azioaceae plants have diverse seed characters, and they can improve our knowledge about the circumscription of each subfamily. The majority of desert Aizoaceae species with hygrochastic fruits have thin seed coat, enabling a rapid germination.

After the presentation, Chinese and foreign experts and students exchanged their views on common features of seed coats of South African desert plants, hygrochastic fruits, and the ancestral character reconstruction of hygrochasy connected with the seed coat structure, and also discussed the seed characters in the family Chenopodiaceae.

Prof. Alexander Sukhorukov is a PIFI visiting scientist at XIEG. He is from Moscow State University and is dealing with the floristic and taxonomic studies on different plant families mostly in the Caryophyllales and Asterales orders, as well as the fruit and seed structure and evolution. He has field experiences in Nepal, Israel, Russia, and different African countries. He is author of more than 130 articles and 5 books.

Prof. Alexander Sukhorukov is delivering his presentation (Image by LONG Huaping)

  Group photo (Image by LONG Huaping)

Contact

LONG Huaping

Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography

E-mail: longhp@ms.xjb.ac.cn

Web: http://english.egi.cas.cn