cladistic analysis of the genus ebenus (fabaceae-hedysareae) based on morphological data

Abstract

In this study, cladistic analysis of characteristics morphological dataset using 21 characters for 26 taxa, including 19 taxa of Ebenus, 2 taxa of Taverniera, 2 taxa of Onobrychis and 2 taxa of Hedysarum as ingroups plus Alhagi persarum as an outgroup were chosen in phylogenetic analyses. Maximum parsimony approach as implemented in PAUP* with a heuristic search was employed. Fifty shortest trees with L=17.88 steps and a CI=0.709 and an RI=0.901 were generated. The analysis revealed that Ebenus was monophyletic. None of its multi-specific sections, Ebenidium and Euebenus, were monophyletic. E. cretica and E. stellata were basalmost branches that followed by a clade consisting of the remaining species. Onobrychis and Hedysarum were strongly allied with Ebenus.