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Phylogenetics of the Monocots

Summary cladogram of general monocot relationships with bootstrap percentages indicated for the various nodes by asterisks. Nodes without asterisks received less than 50% bootstrap support. This is based on the seven-gene analysis of Chase et al. (in press), which was summarised in Chase (2004)

Researchers at RBG Kew have long been involved with phylogenetics of the monocots, and have contributed to many phylogenetic analyses using both molecular and morphological data. The three international monocot symposia and subsequent symposium volumes (Rudall, Cribb, Cutler and Humphries, 1995; Wilson and Morrison, 2000; Columbus, Friar, Hamilton, Porter, Prince and Simpson, 2006) have stimulated exponential increase in this area, particularly in molecular phylogenetic studies. From the first higher-level analyses using a single gene (plastid rbcL, published 1995), through the first multi-gene analysis in 2000 and now to a seven-gene analysis to be published in 2006, relationships of the major groups of monocots have now been clarified. Further work is underway, particularly to make the analyses more comprehensive taxonomically as well as to add more nuclear low-copy genes to the matrix. More morphological and other non-molecular data have also been added to what is known about the monocots, making them now one of the best-studied of the major clades of angiosperms.

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