XVI International Botanical Congess

The Leguminosae is a diverse family of ca. 650 genera and 18,000 species. The subfamily Caesalpinioideae is a basal grade of ca. 155 genera in five tribes, of which only Cercideae is apparently monophyletic. Caesalpinieae, Cassieae, Detarieae, Amherstieae are apparently paraphyletic or polyphyletic. This study is a detailed investigation of phylogenetic relationships within Caesalpinioideae at the genus level based on morphology and anatomy. Within Caesalpinioideae flower, fruit and vegetative morphology and anatomy are extremely diverse. In addition to characters from flower structure that strongly influence existing classification systems, numerous cryptic characters are proving to be informative. The ultimate goal is to combine these data with molecular data, flower development and pollen structure to obtain a more robust hypothesis of relationships within Caesalpinioideae.