XVI International Botanical Congess
Quercus sect. Lobatae (red oaks) consists of ca. 200 species restricted to the New World. Despite half of these species being endemic to Mexico, no species level phylogeny exists for Mexican red oaks. In this study, morphological cladistic analyses were conducted to understand the evolutionary relationships of the Mexican red oak species. Our morphological matrix consists of 52 characters from vegetative and reproductive structures with emphasis on SEM trichome morphology. The trichome types in red oaks include fasciculate sessile, fasciculate stipitate, multiradiate, and stellate. Morphologically similar species can be circumscribed by particular trichome sets and by variations in trichome ray number, length, and position. Molecular data from nuclear DNA sequences will be included in a combined simultaneous analysis to provide insight into the evolution of the genus Quercus