Articles
SYSTEMATIC RELATIONSHIPS IN ACTINIDIA AS REVEALED BY CLUSTER ANALYSIS OF DIGITIZED MORPHOLOGICAL DESCRIPTORS
Article number
498_7
Pages
71 – 78
Language
Abstract
The appropriateness of subdivisions in the current taxonomy of Actinidia was examined by cluster analysis of digitized morphological descriptors.
Fifty morphological descriptors used in the traditional taxonomy were included and coded as “+” or “-” for “presence” or “absence” of each character for 61 species.
A pairwise similarity matrix of Jaccard’s coefficients for all 61 species was produced.
The dendrogram using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) revealed three major clusters at the cutoff level of 0.450 similarity.
The results suggest that the series subdivision based on lamellate pith and the persistence of stellate hairs is not adequate and it is difficult to delimit the characters between species.
The subdivision of the genus into three sections Leiocarpae, Maculatae and Vestitae would be more appropriate even if Maculatae appears very heterogeneous and contains various pubescence types, which is still troublesome in delimitation of some species between the sections. Vestitae is retained as a section for species with hairs and it is proposed that it be divided into two series: Stellatae for species with stellate hairs and Strigosae for those with simple and coarse hairs.
Fifty morphological descriptors used in the traditional taxonomy were included and coded as “+” or “-” for “presence” or “absence” of each character for 61 species.
A pairwise similarity matrix of Jaccard’s coefficients for all 61 species was produced.
The dendrogram using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) revealed three major clusters at the cutoff level of 0.450 similarity.
The results suggest that the series subdivision based on lamellate pith and the persistence of stellate hairs is not adequate and it is difficult to delimit the characters between species.
The subdivision of the genus into three sections Leiocarpae, Maculatae and Vestitae would be more appropriate even if Maculatae appears very heterogeneous and contains various pubescence types, which is still troublesome in delimitation of some species between the sections. Vestitae is retained as a section for species with hairs and it is proposed that it be divided into two series: Stellatae for species with stellate hairs and Strigosae for those with simple and coarse hairs.
Publication
Authors
H. Huang, J. Li, P. Lang, S. Wang
Keywords
Taxonomy, Subdivision, UPGMA, Leiocarpae, Maculatae, Strigosae, Stellatae
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