Tribe Anthocercideae (Solanaceae) consists of seven genera with 31 species endemic to Australia. Past classification of the group resulted in the placement of the seven genera into several tribes. The group was later unified into tribe Anthocercideae, and is now placed as sister to Nicotiana, but phylogenetic work on Anthocercideae remains limited. A more extensive study encompassing all genera was needed to discover lower level relationships within the tribe. A phylogeny of the group was created by studying variation in two chloroplast DNA regions, ndhF and trnL-trnF. This phylogeny allowed us to look at floral character evolution and rates of gene evolution. Tribe Anthocercideae, without genus Symonanthus forms a well-supported, monophyletic group. Each genus in the tribe also forms a monophyletic group, except for Cyphanthera, which appears to be paraphyletic. Symonanthus is found to be more closely related to Nicotiana than to the rest of the tribe. It was found that bilocular stamens is the ancestral condition, and unilocular stamens are evolutionarily derived. Floral character evolution and rates of gene evolution will be discussed in more detail.

Key words: Anthocercideae, Australia, floral evolution, Solanaceae