Philippine Journal of Science
142:(3) 223-244, Special Issue
ISSN 0031 - 7683
Diversity and Evolution of Vitaceae in the Philippines
Jun Wen1, Limin Lu2, and John K. Boggan1
1Department of Botany, MRC-166, Smithsonian Institution,
PO Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012, U.S.A.
2State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany,
Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
ABSTRACT
Vitaceae is economically well-known for grapes and ecologically important as major lianas in tropical and temperate forests. This study analyzes the assembly of taxa of Vitaceae in the Philippines in the phylogenetic framework using five chloroplast DNA markers and enumerates
the taxonomy of Vitaceae in the Philippines. The results suggest active floristic exchanges between the Philippines and other parts of Asia and Australia in the Miocene and Pliocene with some elements in the Oligocene. The taxonomic study recognizes seven genera and 55 species.
Two new species are validly published and four new combinations are made: Ampelocissus sinuosa (Merr.) J. Wen & Boggan, comb. nov.; Causonis corniculata (Benth.) J. Wen & L.M. Lu, comb. nov.; Causonis pterita (Merr.) J. Wen & L.M. Lu, comb. nov.; Tetrastigma simplicifolia
(Merr.) J. Wen & Boggan, comb. nov.; Tetrastigma silvestrei Elmer ex J. Wen & Boggan, sp. nov., and Cayratia coi J. Wen & Boggan, sp. nov. The last species is named in honor of Leonardo Co.
INTRODUCTION
Vitaceae (the grape family) consists of about 14 genera and 900 species primarily distributed in tropical regions (Wen 2007a). The family is well-known for grapes (species of Vitis L.) and is ecologically important because many species are major climbers in tropical and temperate forests. The genus Tetrastigma (Miq.) Planch. of Vitaceae is also famous in southeast Asia for being the host plants of the holoparasitic Rafflesiaceae, which includes Rafflesia R. Br. ex Gray, the
genus producing the largest flower of the world (Wen 2007a). . . . . . . read more
