Phylogenetic relationships and character evolution in New Zealand and selected Australian Gnaphalieae (Compositae) inferred from morphological and anatomical data

Abstract

Most of the estimated 70–80 species of New Zealand Gnaphalieae are endemic. Those of Anaphalioides, Ewartia, Helichrysum, Leucogenes, Rachelia and Raoulia belong to a putatively monophyletic group which is supported by analysis of nuclear ITS DNA sequences and is virtually confined to New Zealand. All species of Craspedia, Euchiton, Ozothamnus and Pseudognaphalium are excluded from this group. A phylogenetic analysis of 42 species of Gnaphalieae, using 57 morphological, anatomical and palynological characters, was conducted to test the monophyly of this group and to seek evidence of generic relationships. The analysis does not resolve basal relationships among the Gnaphalieae studied here. The putative monophyletic New Zealand group is not retrieved. Monophyly is supported for each of Euchiton, Leucogenes, the whipcord species of Helichrysum, the pulvinate species of Raoulia, and Raoulia subg. Raoulia (excluding the aberrant R. cinerea), but not for Anaphalioides or Raoulia s.l. There are these two distinct groups in Raoulia s.l. but also a substantial number of isolated species. The sole New Zealand species of Ewartia is not a sister species to Australian Ewartia. The Australian species Ewartia planchonii is the sister species to Euchiton rather than to the other Australian species of Ewartia. © 2003 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2003, 141, 183–203.