Congruence and complementarity of morphological and trnL-trnF sequence data and the phylogeny of the African Restionaceae

Nucleotide sequence data from the chloroplast genome from the non-coding tr nL-trnF intron and spacer corroborate previous suggestions about the monoph yly of the African Restionaceae. These data, combined with a morphological character set, show that neither Staberoha nor Ischyrolepis are basal to th e African Restionaceae but rather are embedded in the Restio clade. There i s strong support for a basal dichotomy that separates the woody nut Willden owia clade from the soft nut and capsular Restio clade. However, the resolu tion within these two clades is poor, possibly suggesting recent radiation. The monophyly of the genera Elegia, Staberoha Thamnochortus, Ischyrolepis, Cannomois, and Ceratocaryum is corroborated (albeit on very small sample s izes), but Chondropetalum, Restio, Calopsis, Hypodiscus, Anthochortus and W illdenowia are shown to be para- or polyphyletic. Dovea, Askidiosperma, Rho docoma, Platycaulos, Mastersiella, Hydrophilos, and Nevillea are either mon otypic, or have been represented by a single species in this analysis, and consequently their monophyly cannot be evaluated. It is evident that despit e massive generic redelimitations in the family 15 years ago, more changes will have to be made in order to establish a taxonomy of monophyletic gener a.