Ochnaceae

Schneider, Julio V., Jungcurt, Tanja, Cardoso, Domingos, Amorim, André Márcio, Töpel, Mats, Andermann, Tobias, Poncy, Odile, Berberich, Thomas & Zizka, Georg, 2021, Phylogenomics of the tropical plant family Ochnaceae using targeted enrichment of nuclear genes and 250 + taxa, TAXON 70 (1), pp. 48-71 : 61

Ochnaceae and early-diverging clades.

— Since APG III (2009), Ochnaceae comprises Ochnaceae s.str., the monotypic Medusagynaceae , endemic to the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean, and the neotropical Quiinaceae , now recognized at the rank of subfamily ( Schneider & al., 2014). The three subfamilies diverged around the CretaceousPalaeogene boundary ( Schneider & Zizka, 2017; Schneider & al., 2017). The relationships among them have remained unclear, with different inferences across earlier studies ( Fay & al., 1997; Savolainen & al., 2000; Davis & Chase, 2004). Recent more data-rich studies ( Xi & al., 2012; Schneider & al., 2014) retrieved Medusagynoideae as sister to Quiinoideae, both sister to Ochnoideae, but with weak to moderate support. This pattern is also observed in the present study, and some uncertainty remains due to the moderate support in the CC analysis. Such clades recalcitrant to phylogenetic resolution may be explained by model misspecification ( Eytan & al., 2015), but are more likely due to rapid divergence combined with long branches ( Rokas & Carroll, 2006; King & Rokas, 2017) as observed in the split of the subfamilies of Ochnaceae .

Quiinoideae were recovered with strong support, with Froesia Pires being sister to a clade of Lacunaria Ducke and Touroulia Aubl. The only missing genus of that subfamily, Quiina Aubl. , was originally included but was removed during the filtering process because of too many missing data. Nevertheless, the relationships among the Quiinoideae genera were already well resolved in previous studies, with Quiina being sister to the clade of Lacunaria and Touroulia ( Schneider & al., 2014; Schneider & Zizka, 2017).

The position of the African Testulea – the only member of tribe Testuleeae – as sister to the rest of Ochnoideae was already recovered with maximum support in Schneider & al. (2014). The morphology-based hypothesis that Testulea is sister to a clade of Cespedesia , Godoya , Krukoviella and Rhytidanthera ( Amaral, 1991) is thus rejected. Testulea strongly differs in morphology from the rest of Ochnoideae by having tetramerous flowers with a single bracteole, a single fertile stamen and staminodes fused into a column for two-thirds of their length ( Schneider & al., 2014).