<- Brown & Gilmartin 1987 (Article) Bromeliales

Bromeliales, related monocots and resolution of relationships among Bromeliaceae subfamilies

Author(s):G.K. Brown & A.J. Gilmartin

Publication:Systematic botany 12: 493-500. (1987)

Abstract:—Cladistics, phenetics, and our understanding of chromosomal evolution were applied to questions of the relationships and resemblances among the three subfamilies of the monocot family Bromeliaceae. This large, distinct family (2100 species) is mostly from the new world tropics. Among 10 possibly closely related families to the monotypic order Bromeliales, Velloziaceae of Bromeliflorae appear to be the most likely to share the same common ancestor with Bromeliacae, though other members of Bromeliflorae (and some Zingiberiflorae and Commeliniflorae) are also implicated by the analyses. Nearly all of these sister taxa have the same effect in polarizing morphological and anatomical characters. Cladistic analyses placed Bromelioideae and Tillandsioideae as sister taxa and the third subfamily, Pitcairnioideae in close proximity to the family's putative ancestor. A possible explanation of the revealed, multiple lineage relationships and phenetic resemblances among families is a hybrid, paleopolyploid origin of Bromeliaceae. Chromosome numbers are in accord with this notion of reticulate evolution having occurred during the origin of the monotypic order, Bromeliales.