Phylogeny of Schizachyrium (Poaceae)Delimitation of the genus Schizachyrium (Poaceae, Andropogoneae) based on molecular and morphological data

Schizachyrium (Poaceae, Andropogoneae) includes about 60 species distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. In all recent molecular phylogenies Andropogoneae, representatives appear closely related to Andropogon species. The objective this study was contribute delimitation Schizachyrium. We performed a phylogenetic including 38 taxa (>63%) Schizachyrium, along with genera, mainly Andropogon, yielding total 49 taxa. This is first analysis include type S. condensatum. DNA sequences two plastid markers (ndhF trnL-F) were analyzed under Bayesian methods. results indicate that not monophyletic: 26 are placed s.s. clade genus, while 10 other species, delavayi (from China India) jeffreysii Africa), clearly separated. Additionally, 58 morphological characters (41 qualitative 17 quantitative) scored for same parsimony criterion. Character optimizations showed (i) reduced pedicellate spikelets, (ii) lower glume less than or equal 0.5 mm wide, (iii) awned, (iv) without lemma palea support clade. propose these four as diagnostic features