PORTER-UTLEY, KRISTEN1*, WALTER JUDD2, JOHN MACDOUGAL3, MARK WHITTEN4, and NORRIS WILLIAMS5. 1Department of Botany, University of Florida, 220 Bartram Hall, P.O. Box 118526, Gainesville, FL 32611-8526; 2Department of Botany, University of Florida, 220 Bartram Hall, P.O. Box 118526, Gainesville, FL 32611-8526; 3Missouri Botanical Garden, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166; 4Department of Natural History, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, P.O. Box 117800, Gainesville, FL 32611-7800; 5Department of Natural History, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, P.O. Box 117800, Gainesville, FL 32611-7800. - Phylogenetic relationships within Passiflora L. section Cieca Mast. (Passifloraceae) based on morphological and molecular evidence.
As currently circumscribed, Passiflora section Cieca is
characterized by its small, apetalous flowers with the filaments of
the corona mostly in one or two series and by reticulate seed coats.
The rapidly evolving species of the section are primarily distributed
in the southern United States, Mexico, Central America, South America,
and the Caribbean. One species is also found in the Old World (likely
resulting from recent human introduction). Section Cieca
contains two problematic species, P. suberosa and P.
coriacea. Since Linnaeus first named P. suberosa in his
Species Plantarum, taxonomists have disagreed about the
circumscription of the species and, as a result, over 60 synonyms
exist for it. Our preliminary analysis of the herbarium specimens of
P. suberosa indicate that this variable species has likely
served as a "taxonomic garbage can" for entities that cannot
be assigned to any of the other members of the section. Passiflora
coriacea is also a species that exhibits marked morphological
variation over its distribution from eastern Mexico to northern South
America, containing several distinct entities. Morphology along with
nucleotide sequence data from GBSSI (waxy), ITS-1, ITS-2 and
the intervening 5.8S region of the nuclear genome were used for the
phylogenetic analysis of the species within Passiflora section
Cieca (Passifloraceae). Preliminary morphological and molecular
data indicate strong support for the monophyly of section Cieca
and indicate that P. suberosa and P. coriacea, as
currently circumscribed, are likely non-monophyletic groups of cryptic
species. Morphological data suggest that the mainland entities of
P. suberosa are more closely related to other mainland species
in the section than to those entities of P. suberosa from the
Greater Antilles and Galapagos. Furthermore, morphology indicates that
hummingbird pollination has evolved twice within section
Cieca.
Key words: GBSSI, ITS, morphology, Passiflora, phylogeny, section Cieca