A cladistic analysis of the Iranian species of the genus Veronica (Scrophulariaceae) with emphasis on the patterns of homoplasy

摘要

A cladistic analysis of the genus Veronica was performed using 36 morphological characters. 29 species including three outgroups from related genera and 26 species as representatives of natural groups within Veronica distributed mainly in Iran were selected for the analysis. For determination of character polarity the taxa Digitalis nervosa, Wulfenia amherstiana and Veronicastrum virginicum are used as outgroups. Based on the cladistic analysis the patterns of homoplasy are discussed for all appliedcharacters. The analysis shows that most of the morphological characters exhibit high level of homoplasy and are not enough reliable for subgeneric classification in Veronica.