PHYLOGENY AND SYSTEMATICS OF THE RAUVOLFIOIDEAE (APOCYNACEAE) BASED ON MOLECULAR AND MORPHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE¹

Genetic diversity of Amsonia orientalis

“…As conclusion, our results from trnL-F intergenic spacer and 18S-23S rDNA ITS nucleotide sequence phylogeny together with the results from previous studies of Potgieter & Albert (2001) and Simoes et al (2007) suggests that Amsonia genus is not phylogenetically related with Vinceae tribe but can be belonging to Alyxieae. And because of the obvious incongruences between the taxonomic relations obtained from molecular phylogenetic approach and conventional morphology based concept, the morphological characters that plays role on delimitation of tribes of Rauvolfioideae should be reconsidered.…”

“…And this lineage appeared in the same main lineage with Alyxieae tribe that contains Condylocarpon, Alyxia, Lepiniopsis, Plectaneia genera. In a more recent study, Simoes et al (2007) had similar results with the combined phylogenetic analysis of five chloroplast regions (matK, rbcL, rpl16 intron and 3' trnK intron). In the phylogenetic tree drawn with the Bayesian approach, all Vinceae tribe genera except for Amsonia formed a lineage which supported with significant posterior probability values.…”

“…This means that, the structure of fruit is not a homologous character for Rauvolfioideae and the existence of taxa that have dehiscent and dry pericarped fruit structure in the family supports the homoplasious nature of the character as well (Endress & Bruyns 2000). Congruent with this finding, recent phylogenetic studies based on molecular and morphological data revealed some misclassifications in the tribal concept of Rauvolfioideae and suggested reclassifications for them (Potgieter & Albert 2001;Sennblad & Bremer 2002;Simoes et al 2007). In this context, genus Amsonia appeared as one of these conflicting taxa.…”

Apocynaceae do Parque Estadual de Ibitipoca, Minas Gerais, Brasil

“…Rapini et al 2001, Simões & Kinoshita 2002, Koch & Kinoshita 2000, Farinaccio & Mello-Silva 2004a, Oliveira & Pirani 2003. No entanto, a segregação do grupo portador de polínios na família Asclepiadaceae, proposta por Brown (1810), não é mais aceita pois Apocynaceae s.s. é parafilética (e.g., Judd et al 1994, Sennblad & Bremer 1996, Endress & Stevens 2001, Potgieter & Albert 2001, Ionta & Judd 2007, Livshultz et al 2007, Simões et al 2007a). Apocynaceae inclui agora as Asclepiadaceae e pode ser caracterizada por possuir látex, endosperma abundante, prefloração contorcida e gineceu com ápice dos estiletes espessados formando uma cabeça estigmátífera (Endress & Bruyns 2000), sendo esta a delimitação adotada neste trabalho.…”

Floral biology and a pollinator effectiveness test of the diurnal floral visitors of Tabernaemontana undulata Vahl. (Apocynaceae) in the understory of Amazon Rainforest, Brazil

“…Besides the complex fl oral morphology, the existence of secondary pollen presentation co-occurring with herkogamy (Lopes & Machado 1999) and the recent report of functional dioecy in members of the family (Koch et al 2002), also indicate a specialized pollination mechanism in Apocynaceae, preventing self pollination. Th e genus Tabernaemontana L. belongs to the subfamily Rauvolfi oideae in the Apocynaceae s.s. (Simões et al 2006) where information regarding the breeding system and pollination biology are scarce. Few registers on pollination biology for representatives of the genus have been made in Brazil, with the exception of Gottsberger & Gottsberger (2006) for Tabernaemontana hystrix Steud.…”