A combined cladistic analysis of angiosperms using rbcL and non-molecular data sets

A combined analysis of 162 extant angiosperm taxa for which rbcL sequence-data and/or an appreciable amount of non-molecular information is available was calculated. A non-molecular tree, an rbcL tree, and a combined tree are presented. Only the rbcL and the combined data set show large numbers of groupings with bootstrap percentages greater than 50%, whereas the non-molecular trees show only eleven clades of this kind; this seems due to the number of missing cells in the non-molecular matrix. We tried to identify non-molecular characters (including biochemical) that support groups present in these analyses, especially in cases where clades turned out to be new when compared to one or more "classical" taxonomic systems. New groupings found in the non-molecular analysis that parallel the rbcL topologies include a grade containing Illiciales, Austrobaileyaceae, and Amborellaceae (magnoliida II); a clade containing Magnoliales, Laurales, Aristolochianae, and monocots (magnoliid I), a hamamelid group; subgroups of asterids (e.g., a similar asterid III clade containing Scytopetalaceae. Lecythidaceae, Sapotaceae, Ebenaceae, Theaceae, Primulales. Styracaceae, Marcgraviaceae. Actinidiaceae, Clethraceae, and Ericales), an expanded caryophyllid group; a Malvales s.l. clade; a partial Malpighiales grade containing Quiinaceae, Linales s. str., Passiflorales, Violaceae, Kiggelariaceae, Flacourtiaceae s. str., and Ochnaceae; and some smaller clades, similar to the corresponding groups found in rbcL cladograms (Illiciales-Austrobaileyaceae; Aristolochianae-monocots; Hydrangeaceae-Cornales; Lecythidaceae-Scytopetalaceae: Pittosporaceae-Araliales; Geissolomataceae-Stachyuraceae; Connaraceae-Oxalidaceae). Capparales s.l. and the nitrogen-fixing clade, two novel molecular clades, are only found in the rbcL and the combined trees. Cistaceae have been shown to share important characters with Malvales s.l. and are consistently found within this clads. These findings argue against their previous inclusion in Violales. The rbcL tree contains 38 terminal taxa that are included for the first time in a published phylogeny. Considerable progress has been made in assembling a morphological/chemical data set that parallels the broad coverage of angiosperms seen in DNA studies.