Phylogeny in Solanum sect. Lasiocarpa (Solanaceae): Congruence of Morphological and Molecular Data

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Abstract
Solanum sect. Lasiocarpa is centered in northern South America; it includes several species with edible fruits and their near relatives. Relationships among species of the section were estimated from morphological and allozyme characters, using both cladistic and phenetic methods of analysis. Dendrograms depicting relationships among the species are quite similar, regardless of whether they were generated from morphological or molecular data and regardless of which analytical methods were used. Phenetic classifications were slightly more stable than cladistic. All analyses agree that S. stramonifolium and S. sessiliflorum-S. repandum are isolated lines within sect. Lasiocarpa. A third line, centered in the mountains of western Venezuela, includes S. vestissimum, S. hyporhodium, and S. felinum. A fourth assemblage includes S. lasiocarpum, S. candidum, S. quitoense, S. hirtum, and S. pseudolulo and is centered in Andean Colombia. The enigmatic S. pectinatum is allied with this last group. Frequency of speciation relative to morphological and molecular evolution has varied greatly among the different lineages. Interspecific genetic distances in sect. Lasiocarpa are large and not indicative of unusually rapid speciation, taxonomic diversity in Solanum may instead reflect antiquity of the genus.

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