GEIGER, JENNIFER M. O.1*, TOM. A. RANKER1, and DANIEL. D. PALMER2. 1EPO Biology & University Museum, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309; 2Bishop Museum, Honolulu, HI. - Phylogenetic systematics and biogeography of Hawaiian Dryopteris(Dryopteridaceae).
The fern genus Dryopterisis represented worldwide by
approximately 225 species. In the Hawaiian Islands, all but one
species of Dryopterisare endemic. Past investigators have
suggested that the Dryopterisspecies diversity observed in
Hawaii resulted from multiple, successful colonization events to the
Hawaiian archipelago. We collected DNA sequence data from two
chloroplast regions, the rbcLgene and the
trnF-trnLintergenic spacer. Preliminary phylogenetic analyses
from rbcLsequence data suggest that Hawaiian
Dryopterisis not a monophyletic group. One of two non-Hawaiian
Dryopterisspecies, D. dickinsii,included in the analysis
arises on the tree from amongst Hawaiian species, suggesting that
there were at least 2 separate introductions of Dryopterisin
Hawaii. Maximum parsimony analyses of the trnF-trnLintergenic
spacer strongly suggest that two distinct clades exist within Hawaiian
Dryopteris.Additionally, one clade appears to be more closely
related to a non-DryopterisHawaiian species, Nothoperanema
rubiginosa,than to other species of the same genus. This may
suggest that the ancestral species that gave rise to each of these
groups were themselves distantly related, that N. rubiginosais
simply misclassified, or that intergenic spacer sequences do no
reflect species-level phylogeny.
Key words: biogeography, Dryopteridaceae, Dryopteris, Hawaii, phylogenetic systematics