Comparative Anatomy of Cypselae in the Complex Group Chrysolaena, Echinocoryne, Lepidaploa, and Lessingianthus: Contributions to the Systematics of Vernonieae (Compositae)

RAFAEL DE OLIVEIRA FRANCA; DEMATTEIS MASSIMILIANO; RAFAEL DE OLIVEIRA FRANCA; DEMATTEIS MASSIMILIANO; MARQUES DANILO; VIA DO PICO GISELA M.; MARQUES DANILO; VIA DO PICO GISELA M.; ANGULO MARÍA BETIANA; MARZINEK JULIANA; ANGULO MARÍA BETIANA; MARZINEK JULIANA

SYSTEMATIC BOTANY

AMER SOC PLANT TAXONOMISTS

Lugar: Laramie; Año: 2020 vol. 45 p. 668 - 680

0363-6445

Abstract?Vernonieaeis known as the evil tribe due to its complex morphology with great overlappingcharacter status shared with many groups of this tribe. This complexity isreflected in the genera of this tribe as Chrysolaena, Echinocoryne,Lepidaploa and Lessingianthus which, besides having many sharedmorphological characters, also possess an uncertain phylogenetic relationship.In Asteraceae, several anatomical studies have demonstrated the importance ofthe anatomy of the cypselae for the classification of the family, and thesestudies have contributed to the separation of the genera. In this way, westudied the anatomy of the cypselae of these four genera, evaluating theirpotential for solving the systematic problems in this group. The pericarp,floral disk, carpopodium and pappus were analysed for the genera. Our studyshows that the structural characteristics of the cypselae are uniform betweenthe genera and that they cannot contribute to the separation of the same,although these characteristics contribute to the separation of some species.This result corroborates that the separation of these genera is uncertain.Although these genera were segregated from the ancient genus Vernonia s.l.its separation is still questionable, since to date there are not enoughmorphological and phylogenetic characters to contribute to this classification.Actually, the anatomy of the cypselae only contributes to the taxonomy of someof the species, since the presence of glandular trichome and idioblasts,lignification of the carpopodium exocarp and definition of ribs presenttaxonomic value only at specific level.