MORPHOMETRIC AND PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF THE DAVIESIA-ULICIFOLIA COMPLEX (FABACEAE, MIRBELIEAE)

Daviesia ulicifolia is a widespread species that exhibits complex vari ation throughout its range. Using ordination and cluster analysis of m orphometric characters we resolved ten terminal taxa for phylogenetic analysis. A data set including these and five closely related species was coded for a combination of morphometric and qualitative characters and analysed using parsimony. This revealed that D. ulicifolia is par aphyletic by inclusion of D. acicularis, D. arenaria and D. microcarpa . One terminal cluster is more similar to an outgroup species (D. arth ropoda) than to D. ulicifolia and should be treated as a new species. Given recent theoretical and empirical studies showing paraphyly to be both expected and observed at species level, we propose that all exis ting species in this group continue to be recognised taxonomically. We suggest subdividing D. ulicifolia into several subspecies.