A leaf blade anatomical survey of muhlenbergia (POACEAE: Muhlenbergiinae)

P. M. Peterson, Y. Herrera-Arrieta

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Muhlenbergia includes 151 species of mostly New World origin; 133 species are indigenous to North America [although many of these range to Central America (33) and South America (14)]; 38 species occur in Central America (a single species is endemic); 25 species occur in South America (10 are endemic); and only six endemic species are known to occur in southern Asia. No modern subgeneric classification within the genus exists and species relationships are not clear. An anatomical survey of the leaf blade as viewed in transverse section has provided a unique set of 16 characters to test previous hypothesized relationships. A dadistic analysis utilizing these 16 characters was performed on all but three species of Muhlenbergia. Based on this analysis Muhlenbergia appears to be divisible into three major anatomical groups corresponding to two subgenera (M. subg. Muhlenbergia, and Trichochloa) and two sections (M sect. Epicampes and Podosemum) in M. subg. Trichochloa. Even though the presence of sclerosed phloem is an important apomorphy in the evolution of species in Muhlenbergia subg. Trichochloa, it appears to have evolved twice since it occurs in four other species. Our study suggests that in Muhlenbergia subg Muhlenbergia the C4 photosynthesis, PCK subtype was a single evolutionary event since these species occur as a clade or an uninterrupted grade in our phylogenetic analysis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)469-506
Number of pages38
JournalSIDA, Contributions to Botany
Volume19
Issue number3
StatePublished - 23 Aug 2001
Externally publishedYes

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