XVI International Botanical Congess

Henriettea squamulosa (Cogn.) Judd is a small tree endemic to Puerto Rico first described by A. Cogniaux in 1886 as Calycogonium squamulosum Cogn. In 1986 W. S. Judd transferred the species to Henriettea DC., based on common growth architecture and leaf megastyloids. In our study ITS regions of 18S-26S nuclear ribosomal DNA were amplified and sequenced from H. squamulosa, H. fascicularis (Sw.) Gómez-Maza, and H. macfadyenii (Triana) Alain from Puerto Rico, Miconia militis Wurdack from Mexico, and Calycogonium hispidulum Cogn. and Clidemia fuertesii Cogn. from Hispaniola. PAUP analysis of the six aligned sequences yielded 105 possible trees. M. militis and C. fuertesii were used as out-groups. A branch-and-bound search yielded one most parsimonious tree that supports recognition of H. squamulosa.