XVI International Botanical Congess
This study first used nuclear and chloroplast noncoding sequence data to determine a phylogeny of the subfamilies and tribes of the Caryophyllaceae. The data confirmed the placement of Geocarpon within the Caryophyllaceae and mostly confirmed taxononomic treatments of the family based on morphology. The nuclear and chloroplast trees appear to agree. The study next looked at the effectiveness of ITS and trnL intron sequence data on determining the phylogeny at the species level using selected Silene (Caryophyllaceae) species. The sequence data was not as clear at the species level as at the genus level. It did suggest that the all Eastern North American Silene do not form a completely monophyletic grouping. Also comparison of nuclear and chloroplast trees indicate possible reticulate evolution.