北京植物研究所副研究员王祺博士在最近的研究中，基于中国、日本、格鲁吉亚阿布哈兹和克罗地亚的小叶、叶和荚果化石材料的发现与研究，进一步确认了中国和日本过去产自中新世（Miocene）至上新世（Pliocene）的葛藤属叶化石Pueraria miothunberginana，并首次报道了产自中国山东山旺中新世的葛属荚果化石Pueraria shanwangensis。
相关论文发表在《美国植物学杂志》上（Wang Q, Manchester SR, Dilcher DL, 2010. Fruits and foliage of Pueraria (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae) from the Neogene of Eurasia and their biogeographic implications. American Journal of Botany 97 (12): 1982-1998）。
图：山东中中新世山旺组中的豆科荚果化石——山旺葛藤Pueraria shanwangensis。比例尺２厘米。中新世（Miocene）为地质年代新近纪的第一个时期，距今2300万年前到533万年前。
王祺和他的同事在该论文中还描述了产自阿布哈兹和克罗地亚中新世的葛属小叶化石Pueraria maxima。
化石记录表明，葛属在中新世就已经散布到东亚（中国和日本）、高加索山区以及巴尔干半岛等地的温带和亚热带植物群中，葛属目前在热带亚洲和大洋洲的高度多样性可能反映了次生散布的结果。
王祺等人提出，欧洲东南部和高加索地区葛属居群的消失是与中、上新世喜马拉雅山-青藏高原隆起和古地中海的退却、亚洲内陆荒漠化、亚洲季风系统的形成以及地中海的干旱化密切相关的。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原文出处：
American Journal of Botany doi:10.3732/ajb.1000167
Fruits and foliage of Pueraria (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae) from the Neogene of Eurasia and their biogeographic implications1
Qi Wang2,3,6, Steven R. Manchester3,5 and David L. Dilcher4
ABSTRACT
Premise of the study: Pueraria (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae) is native in East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania and is well known as a rampant invasive weed in the southeastern United States (P. montana; better known as kudzu), but relatively little is known about its early evolution and biogeographic origin.
Methods: On the basis of comparative analyses of the fruit and leaflet architecture of closely related extant and fossil taxa, we studied the fossil history and biogeography of Pueraria.
Key results: Fossil Pueraria is recognized on the basis of distinctive fruit and foliage from the Mio-Pliocene of middle latitudes in China, Japan, Abkhazia, and Croatia. Recognition of P. miothunbergiana from the Mio-Pliocene of China and Japan is reinforced by a trifoliolate leaf as well as isolated lateral and terminal leaflets. Pueraria shanwangensis sp. nov. represents the first recognition of fossil Pueraria fruits. This fruit species co-occurs with P. miothunbergiana in the Middle Miocene Shanwang flora and possibly represents the same population. Pueraria maxima (Unger) comb. nov., previously named as Dolichites maximus or Desmodium maximum, is recognized on the basis of leaflets from the Miocene of Croatia and Abkhazia. Other prior fossil reports of Pueraria and Dolichites are reevaluated.
Conclusions: Pueraria had begun to diversify by at least the Middle Miocene and had spread into the Mio-Pliocene subtropical and temperate floras of the Balkan Peninsula, the Caucasus, and eastern Asia, which suggests the present diversity of this genus in tropical Asia and Oceania might have originated from the mid-latitudes of Eurasia.
Key Words: biogeography ? Dolichites ? kudzu ? Leguminosae ? Miocene ? Neogene ? paleobotany ? Pueraria
