A Phylogenetic Analysis of Salix (Salicaceae) Based on matK and Ribosomal DNA Sequence Data

Abstract

The genus Salix has proven a fertile taxon for a host of evolutionary and ecological studies, yet much work remains in the development of a definitive phylogenetic context for those studies. We performed phylogenetic analyses, using both maximum likelihood and maximum parsimony techniques, of chloroplast-encoded matK and nuclear-encoded ribosomal DNA (rDNA) gene sequences, gathered from specimens deemed representative of the existing subgeneric classification, with the objective of identifying and elaborating the phylogenetic relationships within Salix. Comparisons between the two phylogenetic hypotheses indicate a high degree of polyphyly in the matK-based phylogeny. This we attribute to the effects of hybridization, introgression, and lineage sorting. Comparisons with previous molecule-based phylogenetic hypotheses indicate a fair degree of congruence and all are unanimous in placing Chosenia arbutifolia within the genus Salix. The phylogenetic analysis of our ITS data set has produced results that generally support the most-recent infrageneric classification.