A phylogeny of the Areae (Araceae) implies thatTyphonium, Sauromatum, and the Australian species ofTyphoniumare distinct clades

Abstract

With in excess of 70 species, the Southeast Asian/Australian genus Typhonium is the largest genus of the Areae, a tribe that includes up to nine smaller genera of which Sauromatum and Lazarum have recently been reduced to the synonymy of Typhonium. To test the circumscription and relationships of Typhonium to the other Areae, we used chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequences (4319 aligned nucleotides) for 86 of the total 153 species, including representatives of all relevant genera. In the resulting phylogeny, Typhonium species fall into three well-supported clades: the first comprises most Typhonium species, including the type, T. trilobatum ; the second consists of the type of Sauromatum, S. guttatum, and other species formerly placed in that genus; the third includes only Australian endemics. Each of the remaining six genera of Areae is monophyletic. Sauromatum and Typhonium are not sister groups, requiring the recognition of Sauromatum. The Australian clade also needs to be ranked as a genus to achieve similar levels of morphological, geographic, and genetic distinctness among the genera of Areae. However, since only 10 of the 16 described Australian endemics currently placed in Typhonium have so far been sequenced, not including the type of the name of the Australian genus Lazarum, we refrain from applying this name to the Australian clade. Among the nomenclatural and taxonomic results of this study are a key to the nine species of Sauromatum, and five new combinations. We also report two new chromosome counts and discuss the implications of the molecular phylogeny for the evolution of Sauromatum karyotypes.

The Evolution of Pollinator-Plant Interaction Types in the Araceae

“…G, H) that can prevent insects from leaving a deceptive inflorescence, or lack flowers (e.g., Sauromatum hirsutum ; color photo in Cusimano et al. ). In our sampling, half of the 46 genera with unisexual flowers have a spadix apex consisting of functional male flowers (Fig.…”

“…For a nuclear phylogeny of the Araceae, we newly generated 42 sequences of the nuclear Phytochrome C gene ( PhyC ) and added these to existing Araceae PhyC sequences from Cusimano et al. () and Nauheimer et al. () for a total of 72 sequences.…”

“…For a nuclear phylogeny of the Araceae, we newly generated 42 sequences of the nuclear Phytochrome C gene (PhyC) and added these to existing Araceae PhyC sequences from Cusimano et al (2010) and Nauheimer et al (2012a) for a total of 72 sequences. DNA was isolated from leaf material harvested in the living collections of the botanical gardens of Lyon (France), Montet (Nancy, France), and Munich (Germany) in 2008 and 2009.…”

Interstitial telomere-like repeats in the monocot family Araceae

“…We used standard primers (Cabrera et al ., ), except for matK for which we used the primers listed in Cusimano et al . (). Total DNA from silica‐dried leaves was extracted with the NucleoSpin plant II kit according to the manufacturer's protocol (Macherey‐Nagel).…”

Global history of the ancient monocot family Araceae inferred with models accounting for past continental positions and previous ranges based on fossils

“…Like previous family‐wide analyses, we relied on chloroplast loci, namely the trnL intron and spacer, the matK gene and partial trnK intron, and the rbcL gene. We used standard primers, except for matK for which we used the Araceae‐adapted primers of Cusimano et al. (2010).…”