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Cladistic analysis of Taxaceae s. l.

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Abstract

Taxaceae s. l. is a wider concept of classification treating five genera of Taxaceae s. str. and Cephalotaxus together. Cephalotaxus is morphologically very similar to the five genera of Taxaceae s. str. Various models of classification for six genera have already been published. However, the phylogenetic position and genuine relationships of these genera and species are still confusing. A cladistic analysis of Taxaceae s. l. has been carried out to resolve the problem existing in their phylogeny and to provide a new approach regarding the relationships of these six genera. Parsimony analyses were based on 28 characters and eight genera including two outgroups Agathis and Sciadopitys. The most parsimonious tree retained with branch length 38 and 194 rearrangement trials. Consistency index was 0.68 and retention index was 0.66. Principally, two main clades were found: one represented by Austrotaxus forming the base of the tree and another by the remaining five genera. Taxus + Pseudotaxus clade split after Austrotaxus, and Cephalotaxus was sister to Torreya + Amentotaxus clade. Taxus + Pseudotaxus clade was supported by the highest bootstrap value. Finally, cladistic analysis does not support existence of Cephalotaxaceae. Therefore, it would be better to classify Cephalotaxus within Taxaceae s. l. with the other five genera.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Korea National Arboretum as Forest Science and Technology Project.

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  1. Department of Applied Plant Sciences, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, 200-701, Republic of Korea

    Balkrishna Ghimire & Kweon Heo

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  1. Balkrishna Ghimire
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  2. Kweon Heo
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Correspondence to Kweon Heo.

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Ghimire, B., Heo, K. Cladistic analysis of Taxaceae s. l.. Plant Syst Evol 300, 217–223 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-013-0874-y

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