XVI International Botanical Congess

Proteaceae is represented by eight genera in South America. The endemic Roupala, Panopisis, & Euplassa are tropical and species rich compared to the other genera. Their distributions is disjunct and concentrate northwest south America, southeastern Brazil and the Guyana Higlands. Cladistic analyses infer and independent origin for each genus in South America and thus, provide interesting forum to examine patterns of diversification. This study will define the patterns of relationship and diversification of roupala based on molecular cladistic analysis. Roupala shows low interspecific morphological variation and relatively large range of morphological variability , the sum of which hampered taxonomic revision. These results suggest that most Roupala species are the result of a recent radiation. Also, the caldograms are use to examine the distribution different suits of characters among the taxa and the patterns of morphological evolution are discussed.