Systematic studies of African Apiaceae: A progress report

VAN WYK, B.-E., TILNEY, P. M., LIU, M., MAGEE, A. R., WINTER, P. J. D., CALVIÑO, C. I., AND DOWNIE, S. R.

Cape Town, South Africa

Conferencia; XXXIII Annual Conference of the South African Association of Botanists; 2007

South African Association of Botanists

The remarkable morphological and anatomical diversity of African and Madagascar genera of Apiaceae, as revealed by several ongoing studies, is discussed and illustrated. Recent revisions and molecular systematic studies have shown that these genera are of critical importance in understanding the early evolution of the subfamilies Saniculoideae and Apioideae. An overview is presented of (1) interesting new morphological, anatomical and chemical characters and  character states not previously known or used in classification and (2) current ideas and hypotheses relating to phylogenetic relationships, as suggested by novel (cladistic) interpretations of the patterns of character state changes and also by recent molecular systematic studies. Southern Africa appears to be the region of origin of the two major subfamilies of Apiaceae (Saniculoideae and Apioideae), since practically all the basally divergent lineages are predominantly southern African.