PHYLOGENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS IN ANEMONE (RANUNCULACEAE) BASED ON DNA RESTRICTION SITE VARIATION AND MORPHOLOGY

Phylogenetic relationships of 36 species of Anemone (Ranunculaceae) an d seven related genera were explored with a combination of three indep endent data sets: chloroplast DNA restriction sites, nuclear ribosomal DNA restriction fragments, and morphological/cytological variation, u sing Clematis as the outgroup. In the chloroplast DNA work, 245 phylog enetically informative restriction sites were identified using ten res triction enzymes. The same ten enzymes were used to produce the nuclea r ribosomal DNA restriction fragments and resulted in 16 informative c haracters. The conventional data set consisted of 27 characters for th e same taxa used in the molecular work. The phylogeny derived from the combined data sets demonstrates that few sections of Anemone as estab lished by previous classifications are monophyletic and that Pulsatill a, Hepatica, and Knowltonia should be subsumed within Anemone. Several unexpected relationships within the Anemone complex are discussed and hypotheses are offered to explain the interesting geographic distribu tions found in the genus.