Morphological and Molecular Studies on Some Taxa of Polygonaceae in Egypt

Abstract

Polygonaceae is a complex family; diverse in morphology and difficult in taxonomy. Macromorphological characters, lamina vein architecture, stomatography ab- & adaxially (LM and SEM) as well as molecular characters of 19 Polygonaceous taxa were investigated. Plumbago auriculata Lam. was designed as an outgroup for phylogenetic analysis. The obtained criteria were collected in cumulative tables, figures and plates. The foregoing data (289 character states) were numerically analyzed using NTSYST-PC program (version 2.02). The resulted phenogram discussed the similarities and dissimilarities between the studied taxa to facilitate either separation or support the systematic position of taxa under investigation within their specific categories. The parsimony analysis using WinClada-NONA 1.6 software based on 159 potentially informative morphological and molecular characters. The resulted cladogram showed the phylogenetic relationship among the studied taxa. The goal of the present study is to explore the contribution of morphological and molecular characters in systematics of Polygonaceae. Keywords: Polygonaceae, Lamina architecture, Stomatography, Molecular systematics, Morphology, Numerical analysis, Phylogenetics.