Abstract

Paspalum L. has approximately 330 species and a large geographical distribution, mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of America. Due to the morphological variability among the species, different authors have proposed dividing the genus into subgenera, sections, or informal groups. A cladistic analysis of Paspalum was conducted using anatomical foliar and exomorphological characters to test its monophyly and its phylogenetic relationships among representative species. The degree of character homoplasy was analyzed in order to estimate the diagnostic value of anatomical characters among groups. For the cladistic analysis, 47 species of 27 groups established by Chase, with modification established by Cialdella et al. and Morrone et al., and 36 exomorphological and anatomical foliar characters were considered. The data matrix was analyzed with Nona and Pee-Wee, parsimony programs using equal weights and implied weighting. The present phylogenetic analysis confirms that Paspalum is a paraphyletic group and shows close relationships with Axonopus and Thrasya in Paniceae.

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