The Efficiency of DNA Barcoding in the Identification of Afromontane Forest Tree Species

The identification of flowering plants using DNA barcoding proposed in last decades has slowly gained ground Africa, where it been successfully used to elucidate the systematics and ecology several plant groups, understand their evolutionary history. Existing inferences on effectiveness identify African trees are mostly based lowland forests, whereas adjacent montane forests significantly differ from latter floristically structurally. Here, we tested efficiency chloroplast barcodes (rbcLa, matK, trnH-psbA) Afromontane Forest tree species a 20.28 ha permanent plot Ngel Nyaki, Taraba state, Nigeria. We collected, identified, vouchered 274 individuals with diameter at breast height ? 1 cm belonging 101 morphospecies, 92 genera, 48 families. rbcLa matK alone or combination performed better than best discrimination obtained two-locus + rbcLa. intragenic spacer trnH-psbA was too variable align could not be genetic distance method employed. Classic barcode can powerful tool species, mainly due non-prevalence these communities species—rich genera (low species-to-genus ratio) that constitute biggest challenge plants.