Confidence limits in phylogenies: An example from the African Restionaceae

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Summary: Linder, H. P.: Confidence limits in phylogenies: An example from the African Restionaceae. ‐ Taxon 40: 253–266. 1991. ‐ ISSN 0040‐0262.The four ways of assessing the confidence limits in the nodes of a cladogram (character homologies, character numbers per node, bootstrap percentiles and the monophyly index) are reviewed. The methods are applied to a cladogram of the genera of the African Restionaceae, and the confidence limits of each node are discussed. It is shown that there is a great variation in the confidence limits of the various nodes. By combining the various methods it is possible to assess which nodes are not likely to change with the addition of new data, and which may change in the future. It is suggested that this method be employed in making decisions about the establishment of formal classifications, thus avoiding unnecessary changes in the formal taxonomy when further data result in small changes in the cladogram topologies.