Revision of Passiflora Subgenus Decaloba ... - Passion Flowers

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suberosa s.l. and the recognition of four distinct taxa within this complex: P.
suberosa ssp. suberosa, P. suberosa ssp. litoralis, P. pallida, and P. tridactylites.
In the multivariate analyses of the quantitative morphological characters for P.
suberosa s.l., little correlation was found between floral and vegetative
characters. Instead, the variability in many of the vegetative characters in the
complex made it difficult to elucidate distinct taxa. However, an analysis of the
floral characters alone produced an ordination pattern that supports the
delimitation of P. pallida, P. suberosa ssp. suberosa, P. suberosa ssp. litoralis,
and P. tridactylites, though some overlap among entities of P. suberosa ssp.
litoralis and P. pallida does exist. Neighbor joining analyses of both qualitative
and quantitative morphological characters also support the recognition of four
taxa, but accessions of P. pallida were intermixed with accessions of P. suberosa
ssp. litoralis, further indicating that the differences between these two taxa are
sometimes difficult to discern. The results of the neighbor joining analysis also
suggest that both P. tridactylites and P. suberosa ssp. suberosa may have
evolved from P. suberosa ssp. litoralis. The morphological cladistic analysis of
the supersection as a whole indicates the converse, that is, P. suberosa ssp.
suberosa is sister to the rest of the species in the supersection. The position of
P. suberosa ssp. suberosa in the cladistic analysis is questionable.
Nevertheless, it is placed there because it shares a number of characters (e.g.,
sepal color) with the chosen outgroups which are probably actually derived within
the supersection. Passiflora suberosa ssp. litoralis, P. pallida, and P. tridactylites
are in a clade with P. tenuiloba, P. lancifolia, and P. macfadyenii in the