MEEROW, ALAN W.* AND DEIRDRE A. SNIJMAN. USDA-ARS-SHRS, 13601 Old Cutler Road, Miami, FL 33158 and Compton Herbarium, National Botanic Institute, Kirstensbosch, Rhodes Drive, Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa. - Phylogeny of Amaryllidaceae tribe Amaryllideae based on nrDNA ITS sequences.
Tribe Amaryllideae of the Amaryllidaceae is endemic to Africa with the
exception of the pantropical Crinum. It is sister to the rest
of the family in trees generated by plastid sequences. We present the
results of cladistic analyses of nrDNA ITS sequences for 30 species
representing all genera of the tribe, using Scadoxus puniceus
as outgroup. Six trees are found with equal weights imposed on the
data, three with successive weighting. The consensus trees of both
analyses are identical. Boophane is unresolved in relation to
the rest of the tribe, which may be due to the outgroup used.
Agapanthus is the preferred outgroup for this analysis, but we
have been unable to obtain ITS sequences for any Agapanthus sp.
Amaryllis is sister to all of the other genera, which form two
clades conforming to Snijman and Linder's subtribes Amaryllidinae
(less Boophane) and Crininae (less Amaryllis).
Crossyne is the first branch of the Amaryllidinae, within which
Hessea (less H. bruce-bayeri) is resolved as sister to
Brunsvigia. Strumaria is monophyletic only if
Carpolyza is treated as a Strumaria or several species
are transferred to Carpolyza, and Hessea bruce-bayeri is
transfered to Strumaria. Nerine is sister to
Strumaria. Within Crineae, Ammocharis,
Cybistetes, and Crinum baumii form a sister clade to an
otherwise monophyletic Crinum. The results are contrasted with
Snijman and Linder's cladistic analysis based on morphological data,
with which the gene trees are only partially congruent.
Key words: Amaryllidaceae, DNA, molecular systematics, monocotyledons, phylogeny