The phylogeny of the Campanulaceae as inferred from ITS sequences of almost 100 taxa comprising the majority of genera reveals a division of the family into two major clades. The basal clade consists of tropical and Asian taxa of the platycodonoid alliance. The other clade consists of wahlenbergioid taxa of the southern hemisphere and campanuloid taxa of the northern hemisphere. These results are consistent with pollen data and are remarkably congruent with data from genome rearrangements and sequences from several chloroplast genes. The topology of the campanuloid clade suggests that large genera such as Campanula are not monophyletic .

Key words: Campanulaceae, DNA, ITS, nuclear, phylogeny, ribosomal