ALBACH, DIRK C1,2*, MANFRED A FISCHER1, JOHANN GREILHUBER1, and MARK W CHASE2. 1Department of Higher Plant Systematics Botanical Institute, University of Vienna Rennweg 14 A-1030 Wien Austria; 2Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Richmond, Surrey TW9 3DS United Kingdom. - VERONICA: Various Evolutionary Reductions Of Numerous Independent Character Assemblages.
With the recent disintegration of Scrophulariaceae and
re-circumscription of Plantaginaceae based on molecular data,
the genus Veronica, sister to Plantago in numerous
molecular analyses, has shifted to the center of interest, because of
several similarities with Plantago, especially the tetramerous
flower. Analyses of DNA sequence data (ITS and trnL-F) allows
us not only to point out trends in Plantago and Veronica
that originate in their common ancestor but also to elucidate
different Veronica-specific evolutionary trends of reductions
in various characters. These reductions include general habit, flower
morphology, chromosome number and genome size. These reductions appear
most extreme in the annual species of Veronica, which for a
long time have been considered a natural group because of parallel
evolution leading to an "annual syndrome". Whereas it seems
that this syndrome also includes high molecular evolutionary rate and
low genome size, this may rather be associated with the breeding
system, which is tightly but not completely associated with
life-form.
Key words: evolutionary trends, flower evolution, genome size, Lamiales, molecular phylogeny, Veronica