XVI International Botanical Congess
No satisfactory classification exists for the Marantaceae according to Dahlgren, Clifford, and Yeo (1985). Relationships are poorly understood due in part to inadequacy of morphological information, especially for Old World taxa (Andersson 1998). Existing classifications split the family into 2 tribes based on the number of fertile locules. Andersson's 1998 informal classification divides the family into 5 groups based on overall similarity. We sequenced two chloroplast regions (coding and non-coding) totaling approximately 3000 bp for 26 ingroup and 2 outgroup taxa to evaluate the strength of the morphological features used for classification. We propose a provisional classification of Marantaceae based on both sequence and morphological data and compare these results to classifications currently in use.