Cladistic analysis of Festuca s. lat. representatives based on morphoanatomical characters separates major groups of taxa (Subgenera, Sections) that are consistent with those obtained from the analysis of nuclear and chloroplast molecules. Superimposed changes of structural characters on a combined ITS/trnL-F topology demonstrate the phylogenetic value of some sets of morphological characters for particular groups of taxa. Vegetative characters are similarly informative than floral characters on Festuca s. lat. and allied genera. Increased resolution is obtained in most cases when the total evidence principle is assumed under the simultaneous analysis of both molecular and structural data. A higher level of homoplasy is exhibited by the morphoanatomical traits when the evolutionary survey is extended to other Poeae genera.

Key words: Festuca, phylogeny, Poeae, structural characters