Patterns of Homoplasy Based on Selected Morphological Characters in Astragalus s. str (Fabaceae) in the Context of nrDNA ITS Phylogeny

In this study, patterns of homoplasy for 8 vegetative and 14 reproductive morphological characters were assessed in the phylogenetic context deduced from nrDNA ITS data for 115 species including 109 members of Astragalus senso stricto clade and 6 representatives of related genera as outgroups. Character states information of these selected characters were obtained from available literature and examined specimens and were scored based on numerical unordered scoring. nrDNA ITS phylogeny was reconstructed using Neighbour Joining method as implemented in PAUP* ver. 4.0 b10. The morphological dataset was then mapped onto the nrDNA ITS tree. Based on the results of this study the highest ci (consistency index) and ri (retention index) were 0.50 and 0.96, respectively for the gum ducts (absence/presence).