Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 701 No. 1: 13 May 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-05-13
DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.701.1.1
Page range: 1-21
Abstract views: 384
PDF downloaded: 16

Chlorophytum (Asparagaceae) of Uganda—a molecular phylogenetic approach and the resurrection of Chlorophytum elgonense Bullock

Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Technology and Innovation, Mountains of the Moon University, P.O. Box 837, Fort Portal, Uganda; Department of Plant Sciences, Microbiology and Biotechnology, College of Natural Sciences, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda; Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1172 Blindern, NO-0318, Oslo, Norway
Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1172 Blindern, NO-0318, Oslo, Norway
Department of Plant Sciences, Microbiology and Biotechnology, College of Natural Sciences, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066 Blindern, NO-0318, Oslo, Norway
Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1172 Blindern, NO-0318, Oslo, Norway
Anthericaceae SEM Taxonomy Chlorophytum elgonense Chlorophytum longifolium delimitation phylogenetic analysis Monocots

Abstract

Species of Chlorophytum in Uganda were studied using molecular analyses and scanning electron microscopy of the seed surfaces. The four floral regions of Uganda were surveyed in 2019 and 2020 in known localities for Chlorophytum as well as putative new localities. One nuclear (ITS), and 5 chloroplast regions (trnL-F spacer, trnL intron, rps16 intron, rpl20-5’rps12 and psbA-trnH) were PCR-amplified and sequenced. Phylogenetic analyses followed Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian inference. Morphometric data were acquired from the collected vouchers guided by a character list of the most informative characters. Chlorophytum elgonense, recorded as a synonym for C. comosum in the Flora of Tropical East Africa, has been reinstated at the rank of species. The species, C. longifolium, was recorded for the first time in Uganda. The postulated sister species relations of C. occultum to C. alismifolium and C. hirsutum to C. andongense are disputed.

References

  1. Angiosperm Phylogeny Group [APG IV] (2016) An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 181 (1): 1–20. [http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/] https://doi.org/10.1111/boj.12385
  2. Baker, J.G. (1875) The botany of the Speke and Grant expedition. Monocotylidones petaloideae. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 29 (3): 151–163. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1875.tb00234.x
  3. Baker, J. (1876) Chlorophytum tuberosum. Journal of the Linnean Society Botany 15: 332.
  4. Baker, J.G. (1876) Revision of the genera and species Anthericeae and Eriospermeae. Journal of the Linnean Society Botany 15: 253–363. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8339.1876.tb00247.x
  5. Baker, J. (1878) Chlorophytum andongense. Journal of the Linnean Society Botany 1 (5): 260.
  6. Baker, J.G. (1878) Descriptions of new and little known Liliaceæ. Journal of Botany, British and Foreign 16: 321–326.
  7. Bjorå, C.S. (2008) Phylogeny, speciation and biogeography-a study of Crinum and Chlorophytum (Asparagales) with focus on African taxa. PhD thesis, University of Oslo, Norway.
  8. Bjorå, C.S., Elden, M., Nordal, I., Brysting, A.K., Awas, T., Demissew, S. & Bendiksby, M. (2017) Speciation in the genera Anthericum and Chlorophytum (Asparagaceae) in Ethiopia – a molecular phylogenetic approach. Phytotaxa 297 (2): 139–156. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.297.2.2
  9. Bjorå, C.S., Hemp, A., Hoell, G. & Nordal, I. (2008) A taxonomic and ecological analysis of two forest Chlorophytum taxa (Anthericaceae) on Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Plant Systematics and Evolution 274: 243–253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-008-0032-0
  10. Bjorå, C.S., Hoell, G., Kativu, S. & Nordal, I. (2008) New taxa of Chlorophytum (Anthericaceae) from Southern Tropical Africa with notes on their sister group relationships. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 157: 223–238. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8339.2008.00811.x
  11. Bullock, A. (1932) Chlorophytum elgonense. Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information 1932 (10): 503.
  12. Chiovenda, E. (1916) Resultati scientifici della missione Stefanini-Paoli nella Somalia Italiana. Appendice: Le raccolte di Mangano, Scassellati, Mazzocchi e Provenzale in Somalia. Tipografia Galletti e Cocci, Firenze, 241 pp.
  13. Cufodontis, G. (1939) Liliaceae, Missione Biologica nel paese dei Borana 4: 306–324.
  14. Darriba, D., Taboada, G.L., Doallo, R. & Posada, D. (2012) jModelTest 2: more models, new heuristics and parallel computing. Nature Methods 9 (8): 772. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2109
  15. Drummond, A.J., Nicholls, G.K., Rodrigo, A.G. & Solomon, W. (2002) Estimating Mutation Parameters, Population history and Genealogy simultaneously from temporally spaced sequence data. Genetics 161 (3): 1307–1320. https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/161.3.1307
  16. Engler, H. (1892) Chlorophytum colubrinum. Abhandlungen der Koniglichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Berlin, 162 pp.
  17. Guindon, S. & Gascuel, O. (2003) A simple, fast and accurate method to estimate large phylogenies by maximum-likelihood. Systematic Biology 52: 696–704. https://doi.org/10.1080/10635150390235520
  18. Hamilton, M.B. (1999) Four primer pairs for the amplification of chloroplast intergenic regions with intraspecific variation. Molecular Ecology 8 (3): 521–523.
  19. Hochstetter, C.F.F. (1850) Anthericum angustifolium. In: Richard, A. (Ed.) Tentamen florae abyssinicae, Vol 2. A. Bertrand, Paris, 518 pp.
  20. Huelsenbeck, J.P. & Ronquist, F. (2001) MRBAYES: Bayesian inference of phylogenetic trees. Bioinformatics 17 (8): 754–755. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/17.8.754
  21. Judd, S.W., Campbell, S.C., Kellogg, A.E., Stevens, F.P. & Donogue, J.M. (2015) Plant Systematics: a Phylogenetic Approach. Fourth Edition. Sinauer.
  22. Kativu, S. & Nordal, I. (1993) New combinations of African species in the genus Chlorophytum (Anthericaceae). Nordic Journal of Botany 13: 59–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-1051.1993.tb00016.x
  23. Kearse, M., Moir, R., Wilson, A., Stones-Havas, S., Cheung, M., Sturrock, S., Buxton, S., Cooper, A., Markowitz, S., Duran, C., Thierer, T., Ashton, B., Meintjes, P. & Drummond, A. (2012) Geneious Basic: an integrated and extendable desktop software platform for the organization and analysis of sequence data. Bioinformatics 28 (12): 1647–1649. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bts199
  24. Ker Gawler, J.B. (1807) Chlorophytum inornatum. Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 27: t. 1071. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.669
  25. Kitching, J.I., Forey, L.P., Humphries, J.C. & Williams, M.D. (1998) Cladistics: The Theory and Practice of Parsimony Analysis. Second Edition. The Systematics Association Publication No. 11. Oxford University Press.
  26. Lemey, P., Salemi, M. & Vandamme, M.A. (Eds.) (2012) The Phylogenetic Handbook. A Practical Approach to Phylogenetic Analysis and Hypothesis Testing. Second Edition. Cambridge University Press.
  27. Letunic, I. & Bork, P. (2016) Interactive tree of life (iTOL) v3: an online tool for the display and annotation of phylogenetic and other trees. Nucleic Acids Research 44 (W1): W242–W245. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkw290
  28. Linnaeus, C. (1753) Species Plantarum, vol 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm, 560 pp.
  29. Marais, W. & Reilly, J. (1978) Chlorophytum and its related genera (Liliaceae). Kew Bulletin 32: 653–663. https://doi.org/10.2307/4109671
  30. Matovu, P. (2022) Molecular Phylogeny, taxonomy, and distribution of Chlorophytum Ker-Gawl. (Asparagaceae) in Uganda. Master dissertation, Makerere University, Uganda. [https://makir.mak.ac.ug/handle/10570/9971]
  31. Mau, B., Newton, A.M. & Bret, L. (1999) Bayesian Phylogenetic Inference via Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods. Biometrics 55: 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0006-341x.1999.00001.x
  32. Meerts, P. & Bjorå, C.S. (2012) Synopsis of the genus Chlorophytum (Asparagaceae) in Central Africa (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi). Plant Ecology and Evolution 145: 373–409. https://doi.org/10.5091/plecevo.2012.668
  33. Nordal, I., Eriksen, T.E. & Fosby, M. (1990) Studies on the Generic delimitation of Anthericaceae. Mitteilungen Institut Allgemeine Botanik Hamburg 23b: 535–559.
  34. Nordal, I., Kativu, S. & Poulsen, A.D. (1997) Anthericaceae. In: Polhill, R.M. (ed.) Flora of Tropical East Africa. A.A.Balkema, Rotterdam, Brookfield.
  35. Oxelman, B., Lidén, M. & Berglund, D. (1997) Chloroplast rps-16 intron phylogeny of the tribe Sileneae (Caryophyllaceae). Plant Systematic and Evolution 206: 393–410. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00987959
  36. Poulsen, A.D. & Nordal, I. (1999) Two new species of Chlorophytum from central Africa. Kew Bulletin 54 (4): 941–949. https://doi.org/10.2307/4111172
  37. Poulsen, A.D. & Nordal, I. (2000) Chlorophytum hirsutum. Kew Bulletin 54 (4): 941.
  38. Poulsen, A.D. & Nordal, I. (2005) A phenetic analysis and revision of Guineo-Congolean rainforest taxa of Chlorophytum (Anthericaceae). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 148: 1–20.
  39. POWO (2025) Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Available from: http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/ (accessed 22 March 2025)
  40. Prince, M.N., Dehal, P.S. & Arkin, A.P. (2009) FastTree: computing large maximum evolution trees with profiles instead of a distance matrix. Molecular Biology and Evolution 26: 1641–1650. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msp077
  41. Prince, M.N., Dehal, P.S., Arkin, A.P. & Poon, A.F.Y. (2010) FastTree2 – approximately maximum-likelihood trees for large alignments (FastTree). PLoS One 5 (3): e9490.
  42. Rambaut, A. (2010) FigTree v1.4.4. Institute of Evolutionary Biology. University of Edinburgh. [http://tree.bio.ed.ac.uk/software/figtree/]
  43. Rambaut, A., Drummond, A.J., Xie, D., Baele, G., Suchard, M.A. & Susko, E. (2018) Posterior Summarization in Bayesian Phylogenetics Using Tracer 1.7. Systematic Biology 67: 901–904. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syy032
  44. Rannala, B. & Young, Z. (1996) Probability Distribution of Molecular Evolutionary Trees: A New Method of Phylogenetic Inference. Journal of Molecular Evolution 43 (3): 304–311. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02338839
  45. Ronquist, F. & Huelsenbeck, J.P. (2003) MRBAYES 3: Bayesian phylogenetic inference under mixed models. Bioinformatics 19 (12): 1572–1574. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btg180
  46. Schwein, B. (1876) Chlorophytum longifolium. The Journal of the Linnean Society Botany 15: 327.
  47. Stamatakis, A. (2014) RAxML version 8: a tool for phylogenetic analysis and post-analysis of large phylogenies. Bioinformatics 30 (9): 1312–1313. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btu033
  48. Tarberlet, P., Gielly, L., Pautou, G. & Bouvert, J. (1991) Universal primers for amplification of three non-coding regions of chloroplast DNA. Plant Molecular Biology 17: 1105–1109. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00037152
  49. Thiers, B. (2016) Index Herbariorum: A Global Directory of Public Herbaria and Associated Staff. New York Botanical Garden’s Virtual Herbarium. [http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/ih/]
  50. Thunberg, C.P. (1794) Prodromus Plantarum Capensis. Edman, Uppsala, 87 pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.84
  51. White, T.J., Bruns, T., Lee, S. & Taylor, J. (1990) Amplification and direct sequencing of fungal ribosomal RNA genes for phylogenetics. In: Innis, M.A., Gelfand, D.H., Shinsky, J.J. & White, T.J. (Eds.) PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 315–322. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-372180-8.50042-1

How to Cite

Matovu, P., Ballesteros, J.A.C., Namaganda, M., Nordal, I. & Bjorå, C.S. (2025) Chlorophytum (Asparagaceae) of Uganda—a molecular phylogenetic approach and the resurrection of Chlorophytum elgonense Bullock. Phytotaxa 701 (1): 1–21. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.701.1.1