Phylogeny of the Madagascan endemic family Didiereaceae

Abstract

A molecular phylogeny of the Didiereaceae was produced through parsimony analysis of chloroplast rpl16 intron and trnL-trnF and trnT-trnL intergenic spacer sequences of all eleven species of the Didiereaceae and several outgroup taxa from the Portulacaceae. Results indicated that: 1) the Didiereaceae were embedded within the Portulacaceae, with Calyptrotheca as the sister group of the family; 2) present generic limits were supported; 3) Alluaudiopsis was the most basal lineage; 4) at least two separate episodes of polyploidization within the genus Alluaudia had occurred, and 5) unusually low amounts of variation were present in rapidly evolving noncoding plastid sequences.