Revision of Passiflora Subgenus Decaloba ... - Passion Flowers

Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School
of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
REVISION OF PASSIFLORA SUBGENUS DECALOBA SUPERSECTION
CIECA (PASSIFLORACEAE)
Chair: Walter S. Judd
Department: Botany
By
Kristen E. Porter-Utley
December 2003
Passiflora subgenus Decaloba supersection Cieca is a monophyletic group of
herbaceous to woody climbers found in subtropical and tropical regions of the
world. The 19 species, including two subspecies, recognized here are primarily
distributed in the southern United States, México, Central America, South
America, and the Caribbean. Two species, P. suberosa and P. pallida, also
occur in various regions of the Old World, likely as a result of naturalization. The
species of the supersection are recognized by their small, apetalous, usually
greenish flowers with the filaments of the corona mostly in two series. The
supersection contains two problematic species complexes, P. suberosa and P.
coriacea. Phylogenetic relationships within supersection Cieca are investigated
by means of phenetic and cladistic analyses of morphological (external
morphology) and molecular (nucleotide sequences of ITS-1, ITS-2 and the
intervening 5.8S region) characters. The morphological and molecular data sets
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