The general goal of this PhD research was to study the phylogeny and systematics of selected plant genera in the subfamily Acalyphoideae s.s. of the angiosperm family Euphorbiaceae. The main focus... Show moreThe general goal of this PhD research was to study the phylogeny and systematics of selected plant genera in the subfamily Acalyphoideae s.s. of the angiosperm family Euphorbiaceae. The main focus was on two large genera, Macaranga and Mallotus, and a number of smaller genera related to them. The phylogeny of these genera was studied using sequence data from plastid (trnL-F) and nuclear (ITS, ncpGS, phyC) markers. The results show that Macaranga is a monophyletic genus, but that Mallotus is paraphyletic for two reasons: 1) Mallotus sections Hancea and Oliganthae form a separate clade together with the genera Cordemoya and Deuteromallotus, and 2) the genera Coccoceras, Neotrewia, Octospermum and Trewia are part of the main Mallotus clade. To reflect these findings in the classifications, Neotrewia, Octospermum and Trewia were merged with Mallotus (the other necessary taxonomic rearrangements have been conducted separately). A taxonomic revision for these three genera was also conducted. Further, the phylogeny of the main Mallotus clade was studied in more details using both molecular (matK, gpd) and morphological data. Additionally, a taxonomic revision of the Malesian species in the genus Cleidion was conducted, and the morphology and phylogenetic position of previously insufficiently known African genus Afrotrewia was studied. Show less
