Magnoliaceae - Systematics

Systematics

Due to this great deal of family wide morphological similarity, no consensus has yet emerged on the number of genera in the family. The development of DNA sequencing at the end of the twentieth century had a profound impact on the research of phylogenetic relationships within the family. The employment of ndhF and cpDNA sequences has refuted many of the traditionally accepted phylogenetic relationships within Magnoliaceae. For example, it has shown the genera Magnolia and Michelia to be paraphyletic when the remaining four genera of Magnolioideae are split out. In fact, even many of the subgenera (Magnolia subg. Magnolia, Magnolia subg. Talauma) have been found to be paraphyletic. Although no completely resolved phylogeny for the family has yet been determined, these technological advances have allowed systematists to broadly circumscribe major lineages.