Phylogenetic and Phenetic Analyses on Apocynaceae senso lato

Abstract

In the present study, 20 wild and ornamental species representing four subfamilies out of five belonging to Apocynaceae s. l. to (APG, 2003, 2009 & 2016). The studied species were collected from different localities and botanical gardens from Egypt and Libya. The wild species were identified according to Täckholm (1974) & Boulos (2000) while the ornamental species by the aid of Bailey (1949). The morphological characters including viz. whole plant, lamina vein architecture, lamina epidermal characters and pollen grains characters using LM & SEM were investigated and numerically analyzed to detect the phonetic relationship between the studied species and barcoding DNA sequencing (rbcL) was cldistically analyzed to detect the phylogenetic relationship between the studied species. The obtained results might be summarized in the following point: 1. The stem was generally erect in most of the studied species or weak in Cynanchum acutum and Huernia andreaeana. 2. Leaves rudimentary in Huernia andreaeana or simple foilage with entire margin in the rest of the studied species.