Taxonomy and evolutionary relationships of Passiflora subg. Decaloba supersect. Decaloba sect. Xerogona (Passifloraceae): contributions of palynological, morphological and molecular studies

Abstract

Passiflora subg. Decaloba supersect. Decaloba sect. Xerogona (Passifloraceae) is a tropical and subtropical group comprising 14 species that occur in tropical biomes throughout Latin America, including the Atlantic Forest. The section Xerogona comprises herbaceous vines characterized by a lack of petiole glands on their leaves, of bracts and of ocelli on their leaf blades, as well as by their capsular fruits. We analyzed the phylogeny on the basis of morphological characters (including pollen characters) and molecular data. The inferred phylogeny was used in order to characterize, circumscribe and delimit the section and the species. We examined the phylogenetic relationships among the species, evaluating the circumscription of the section on the basis of the trnL-trnF intergenic spacer region of chloroplast DNA and the internal transcribed spacer region of nuclear ribosomal DNA. We constructed phylogenetic trees on the basis of the morphological and molecular data. We found that P. subg. Decaloba supersect. Decaloba sect. Xerogona appears to be monophyletic only in the molecular analyses. The phylogenetic analyses performed here also indicated that P. subg. Decaloba is monophyletic.

Morphological characterization in the genus Passiflora L.: an approach to understanding its complex variability

“…However, the last two species are closely associated with P. sexflora in the ncpGS tree. Additionally, these results are consistent with the ones found byKrosnick et al (2013) andMilward-de-Azevedo et al (2014) regarding their position in the series and they also support subgenus Decaloba as monophyletic.…”

A Taxonomic Revision ofPassiflorasect.Xerogona(Passifloraceae) Using Principal Component Analysis

“…The shape of the leaves and the absence of floral bracts and laminar nectaries suggest affiliation with Passiflora sect. Xerogona, and a DNA analysis places the species as sister to the rest of the section (Krosnick et al, 2013;Milward-de-Azevedo et al, 2014b).…”

Exploring the role of auxin in the androgynophore movement in Passiflora

“…Another issue is whether the thigmotropic androgynophore features are adaptively inherited for their potential role in the evolution of flower-pollinator relationships in Passiflora . It has been suggested that hummingbird-pollinated Xerogona species, such as P. citrina and P. sanguinolenta , are derived in relation to other insect-pollinated Decaloba species ( Milward-de-Azevedo et al ,, 2014 ). We therefore infer that the wide-moving androgynophores, characteristic of hummingbird-pollinated species (such as P. sanguinolenta ) are derived with respect to insect-pollinated species with more ‘restricted’ movement (such as P. capsularis ).…”