PRELIMINARY PHYLOGENY

This is a preliminary phylogeny based on the chloroplast gene rps4, which has been sequenced for specimens of S. involutus from the following locations: Malaysia, Borneo, Samoa, Fiji, and the Society Islands (Tahiti, Mo’orea, Raiatea, Taha’a). A heuristic search using maximum parsimony was implemented in PAUP 4.0 for the rps4 sequence data culled from these taxa and some additional taxa from the Calymperaceae. This phylogeny is not intended to reflect the relationships within the Calymperaceae as a whole, but is merely a heuristic attempting to convey the considerable phylogenetic structure within the S. involutus complex. Interestingly, the level of phylogenetic resolution afforded by rps4 for the S. involutus complex is comparable to that found at the level of genera or families of angiosperms (Soltis et. al. 1998).

REFERENCES CITED:

Soltis, D. E., and P. S. Soltis. 1998. Choosing an approach and an appropriate gene for phylogenetic analysis. Pages 1-42 in D. E. Soltis, P. S. Soltis, and J. J. Doyle, eds. Molecular Systematics of Plants II. DNA Sequencing. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston.

Swofford, D. 2000. PAUP: phylogenetic analysis using parsimony, version 4.0. Sinauer Associates, Inc.

Leaves of three different taxa from the S. involutus complex:

a. Malaysia, b. Samoa, c. Moorea.