Abstract
A chloroplast DNA restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis has been carried out on representatives species of Orchis (Orchidaceae) and of the allied genera Aceras, Dactylorhiza, and Anacamptis. One species of Cephalanthera and one of Serapias were used as outgroups. The consensus tree from a cladistic analysis showed that Orchis, as presently defined, is paraphyletic, as it contains also Aceras anthropophorum and Dactylorhiza saccifera. The genus Orchis is divided in two clades: one including O. laxiflora, O. papilionacea, O. coriophora, and O. morio in a ladderized sequence, the other showing D. saccifera at the base, followed by a clade in which a collapse of O. mascula, O. pauciflora, O. quadripunctata is sister group to a clade composed by O. italica, O. simia, and A. anthropophorum. These results, which agree to a great extent with literature evidence on chromosomes and isozymes, have been compared with various traditional systematic hypotheses for the genus.
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