Using comprehensive demographic data for two well-studied, short-lived plants (Plantago coronopus, Clarkia xantiana), we show that the arrangement of species' demographic niches reveals key features of their environmental niches and geographic distributions.
The genera Darwiniothamnus Harling, Lecocarpus Decaisne, and Macraea Hook. f. are endemic to the Galapagos Islands. Although wood anatomy of Lecocarpus has been considered by Carlquist (1958) and Eliasson (1971), the material available hitherto has been twigs rather than mature wood. The other two genera have not been studied with respect to wood anatomy.
Hydrophyllaceae is a characteristically herbaceous family; only Eriodictyon Benth., Wigandia H.B.K., and the monotypic Turricula Macbr. can be considered woody (stems attaining a diameter of more than 1 em). Are plants such as these relicts from a woody ancestry, or is the family secondarily woody?