Patrones de distribución del género Zanthoxylum L. (Rutaceae) en México

Abstract

The genus Zanthoxylum has a pantropical distribution pattern. Mexico is considered a center of diversification. Thus, in this work, we performed a track analysis using the program Trazos 2004® and 2 Parsimony Analyses of Endemicity (PAE): The first one was applied for the areas and the second for the vegetation types where the species live. We obtained 21 individual tracks and 2 generalized ones, for the Mexican Mountain Transition Zone and Neotropical region, respectively. We also obtained 3 nodes, 2 of them are located in the transition among Sierra Madre Oriental, Mexican Gulf and Oaxaca provinces and the other one is located in the province of the Mexican Gulf. The PAE groups the provinces of the Pacific Coast, Transmexican Volcanic Belt, Mexican Gulf, Oaxaca, Balsas Basin and the Sierra Madre del Sur in a set of clades succesively nested, supported by Zanthoxylum aguilarii, Z. culantrillo, Z. liebmannianum and Z. purpusii species, at different branches. The cladogram resulting by the PAE for vegetation types showed that the vegetation types of the temperate zones (cloud forest, Quercus and coniferous forest) are closely related in a single clade supported by 3 species Z. elegantissimum, Z. foliolosum and Z. melanorhachis.