Taxonomic revision and cladistic analysis of Dichorisandra

Author(s)

Lidyanne Yuriko Saleme Aona

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia
• Defense date: 2008-01-31

Examining board members

Maria do Carmo Estanislau do Amaral; André Márcio Amorim; André Olmos Simões; Rafaela C Forzza; Aparecida Donisete de Faria

• Advisor: Maria do Carmo Estanislau do Amaral

Abstract

The neotropical genus Dichorisandra is the largest within the subtribe Dichorisandrinae, being characterized by its poricidal anthers (sometimes opening by slits but functionally poricidal) and its arillated seeds. The plants are perennial, herbaceous, sometimes with a leaf rosette close to the ground, and live mostly within forests. The last revision of the genus dates from over 110 years ago, and the present work aims to present an up-to-date revision for the genus, evaluating a large volume of new records, including the taxa described after fhe first revision was published. The taxonomic studies were based on material held in national and international herbaria and field work focussing the particularly species rich Brazilian states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo and Bahia. The 63 published names were reduced to 30 accepted species, and 24 synonymies and a new combination are proposed. Twenty four new species from Brasil (mostly from Bahia), Panama, Ecuador, Peru and French Guiana were discovered. Apart from the taxonomic revision, a cladistic analysis of the genus was performed with basis on morphologic and macromolecular characters (trnL-F intergenic spacer, rsp 16 and rpl 16 introns) aiming to investigate the species relationships and the re-evaluation of the morphological characters used to determine the species. The matrixes obtained were analyzed under the criterium of parcimony. The clades within the genus are not strongly supported in the 'bootstrap¿ analysis, as the extreme morphological variation found amongst and within species has made it very difficult to define monophyletic groups (AU)