SIGNIFICANCE OF PALYNOLOGY FOR PHYLOGENY OF ANNONACEAE - EXPERIMENTS WITH REMOVAL OF POLLEN CHARACTERS

Phylogenetic analyses based on morphology place Anaxagorea and other t axa with granular monosulcate pollen, as in other Magnoliales, at the base of Annonaceae. Taxa with columellar tetrads, granular tetrads, an d inaperturate monads form a derived clade. To test the systematic imp ortance of palynology, we analyzed the data set with pollen characters removed. The result was lower resolution and a different rooting of t he family, between Uvariopsis and other groups with columellar tetrads . Anaxagorea and other monosulcates are higher in the tree, implying t hat granular monosulcate pollen, laminar stamens, and irregular endosp erm ruminations are reversals. This rooting is highly unparsimonious w hen pollen characters are included, and only weakly supported over the Anaxagorea rooting when pollen is excluded. Together with preliminary molecular analyses, these experiments confirm the special value of pa lynology in systematics of Annonaceae.