Phylogeny Of Abildgaardieae (Cyperaceae) Inferred From ITS And 'trn'L -F Data

Within the tribe Abildgaardieae, the relationships between 'Fimbristylis' and its relatives have not been certain, and the limits of 'Fimbristylis' have been unclear, with 'Bulbostylis' and 'Abildgaardia' variously combined with it and each other. The relationships and limits of tribes Abildgaardieae and Arthrostylideae and their genera were evaluated across 49 representative species using parsimony and maximum likelihood analyses of ITS (nuclear ribosomal) and 'trn'L–F (plastid) DNA sequence data separately and combined. The evolutionary reconstructions derived from sequences of cpDNA and nrDNA disagree about the position of tribe Arthrostylideae relative to Abildgaardieae; 'Arthrostylis' and 'Actinoschoenus' are either nested within Abildgaardieae ('trn'L–F data) or very closely related to this tribe (ITS data). The reconstructions also disagree about the monophyly of genus 'Abildgaardia' (excluding 'A. vaginata'). 'Crosslandia' and 'A. vaginata' form a clade that is nested within 'Fimbristylis'. 'Bulbostylis' is monophyletic and clearly separated from 'Fimbristylis'. Further sampling of taxa and characters is needed to resolve and/or strengthen support for some of these "deep" and fine-scale relationships.