DAVIS, CHARLES C.1*, WILLIAM R. ANDERSON2, and MICHAEL J. DONOGHUE3. 1Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138; 2University of Michigan Herbarium, North University Building, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1057; 3Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, P.O. Box 208106, New Haven, Connecticut 06520. - Phylogeny of Malpighiaceae: evidence from chloroplast ndhF and trnL-F nucleotide sequences
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The Malpighiaceae are a family of approximately 1250 species of
predominantly New World tropical flowering plants. Infrafamilial
classification has long been based on fruit characters. Phylogenetic
analyses of chloroplast DNA nucleotide sequences were analyzed to help
resolve the phylogeny of Malpighiaceae. A total of 79 species,
representing 58 of the 65 currently recognized genera, were studied.
The 3' region of the gene ndhF was sequenced for 77 species and
the noncoding intergenic spacer region trnL-F was sequenced for
65 species; both sequences were obtained for the outgroup, Humiria
(Humiriaceae). Phylogenetic relationships inferred from these data
sets are largely congruent with one another and with results from
combined analyses. The family is divided into two major clades,
recognized here as the subfamilies Byrsonimoideae (New World only) and
Malpighioideae (New World and Old World). Niedenzu's tribes are all
polyphyletic, suggesting extensive covergence on similar fruit types;
only Jussieu's tribe Gaudichaudieae and Anderson's tribes Acmanthereae
and Galphimieae are monophyletic. Fleshy fruits evolved three times in
the family and bristly fruits at least three times. Among the
wing-fruited vines, which constitute more than half the diversity in
the family, genera with dorsal-winged samaras are fairly well
resolved, while the resolution of taxa with lateral-winged samaras is
poor. The trees suggest a shift from radially symmetrical pollen
arrangement to globally symmetrical pollen at the base of one of the
clades within the Malpighioideae. The Old World taxa fall into at
least six and as many as nine clades.
Key words: biogeography, Malpighiaceae, molecular, phylogeny, systematics