HIPP, ANDREW L.1 and PAUL E. ROTHROCK2.* 1University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Botany, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison WI, 53706; 2Randall Environmental Studies Center, Taylor University, Upland IN, 46989-1001. - Phylogeny and character evolution in the Eastern North American members of Carex section Ovales (Cyperaceae): evidence from AFLP data and DNA sequences.
Section Ovales, with approximately 90 New World species,
comprises one of the largest groups in the sedge genus Carex.
Preliminary investigations using nrDNA (ITS) and cpDNA (rpl16
intron) sequences have revealed that the section contains a
monophyletic clade that includes most of the section’s Great Plains
and Eastern North American species. ITS and rpl16 alone are
insufficient to resolve relationships within this clade. The study
presented here is an investigation of relationships within this clade
using combined analysis of sequence data and amplified fragment length
polymorphism (AFLP) data. AFLP’s are shown to be largely congruent
with ITS in a sampling that crosses the range of the section. Combined
analysis demonstrates that the traditional subsections of
Ovales have some correlation with phylogenetic relationships of
the eastern species. The broad North American concept of subsection
Festucaceae is not supported by phylogenetic study, however;
and evidence of convergence in vegetative characters associated with
floodplain species suggests that the traditional subsection
Tribuloideae is also circumscribed too broadly. The data
presented will be used to infer changes in chromosome number
associated with speciation in the section and to explore geographic
and morphological evolutionary trends.
Key words: AFLP, Carex, Cyperaceae, ITS, Ovales, rpl16