SEED MORPHOLOGY IMPROVES DATA FROM PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS OF MEDICAGOID TRIGONELLA, MEDICAGO AND MELILOTUS (FABACEAE) SPECIES

Phylogenetic relationship and seed morphological characters of 11 species belong to Medicagoid Trigonella, six non Medicagoid and one species of each genera of Medicago and Melilotus were estimated before based on ITS sequences by using Baysian inference and maximum parsimony. In this paper, scanning Electron Microscope and stereomicroscope for seed morphological characters were used. Seed morphology results indicated that majority of Medicagoid Trigonella species belong to Bucerates and Lunatae sections placed in two close subclusters and joined together as did by Baysian analysis results. Both studies confirmed that Medicago radiata is sister for these species. Our results confirm that using molecular and morphological characters data are reliable evidence in systematic discriminations of the taxa.