Deep phylogenetic relationships among “plants” and their implications for classification

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Summary: Mishler, B. D.: Deep phylogenetic relationships among “plants” and their implications for classification. – Taxon 49: 661–683. 2000. – ISSN 0040‐0262.There has been tremendous recent progress in understanding the relationships of plants, due to two different advances, whose cumulative impact has been great. One advance is theoretical and methodological—a revolution in how any sort of data can be used to reconstruct phylogenies. The other is empirical—the sudden availability of copious new data from the DNA level. This review briefly sets these advances in their historical context, then covers both as to their promise and problems. An important distinction between “shallow” and “deep” phylogenetic studies is developed, and morphological and molecular data are compared as potential phylogenetic markers in that context. Recent results on relationships of plants in general and green plants in particular are then considered. Future directions for classification, particularly the need for rank‐free taxonomy, are also discussed in light of the rapidly improving resolution of plant relationships.