A phylogeny of the Munnoziinae (Asteraceae, Liabeae): circumscription of Munnozia and a new placement of M. perfoliata

Abstract

The tribe Liabeae (Compositae, Cicho- rioideae) comprises three subtribes, Liabinae, Munnoziinae, and Paranepheliinae. For one of these, the Munnoziinae, which contains the genera Munnozia, Chrysactinium, Erato, and Philoglossa, the nuclear ITS (internal transcribed spacer) region was sequenced to examine the monophyly of the subtribe and the core genus Munnozia within it. Thirty-six samples representing four currently recognized genera of Munnoziinae and two outgroups were included in this study. Mo- lecular phylogenetic analyses confirm the close relationship of Munnozia with Chrysactinium, and Erato with Philoglossa. However, the monophyly of the Munnoziinae and Munnozia is not support- ed, in disagreement with the current morpholog- ical findings. The discrepancies were attributed to the placements of Munnozia perfoliata outside the Munnoziinae and Munnozia ,a ndChrysactinium within Munnozia. The resulting tree indicates that first, M. perfoliata needs to be moved out of the munnoziinae and second, Chrysactinium originated from within Munnozia. For the first finding, morphological and palynological reevalu- ation of this species with allegedly related species reveals additional support in agreement with molecular data. Therefore we propose that the genus Munnozia be re-delimited to the members having black or dark brown anther theca and sordid or reddish pappus and re-organized.