XVI International Botanical Congess

An earlier cladistic study of Papaveroideae, based on chloroplast DNA restriction site's data set, was used to compare the utility of MDS for the taxonomy of Papaver, Stylomecon and Roemeria genera. The spatial configuration of Papavereae was determined by absolute distances of taxa facing P.alpinum, and 3D projection of the tribe became possible. The configuration of Papavereae contained two different sets, one of them was joint with Roemeria, but was separated for Papaver sect. Argemonidium. The other set was built from all other poppy sections, since MDS could clear up the infratribal links of P.alpinum (sect. Meconella). This fact was based on the dissimilarities of the two distant taxa, P. pavoninum and P.gracile, according to their distances from P.alpinum. P.alpinum could not be inserted into the set Roemeria-Argemonidium either, or into a hierarchy of all Papavereae taxa, but it belonged to the set of sections Pseudopilosa, Meconidium, Macrantha, Rhoeadium and Papaver.