Analysis of the genus Sacciolepis (Poaceae, Panicoideae, Paniceae) based on morphological characters

Abstract

Sacciolepis (Poaceae, Panicoideae, Paniceae) is a pantropical genus composed by 23 species, mainly distributed in Africa, with some taxa in America, Asia and Australia. The aims of this work are to test the monophyly of Sacciolepis and to explore its infrageneric relationships. Thirty-one taxa and 80 morphological and anatomical characters, including continuous characters, were analyzed under the maximum parsimony criterion. The monophyly of Sacciolepis was corroborated and its diagnostic characters were discusssed. This paper is the first phylogenetic analysis of Sacciolepis.