Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 8 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201808.0496.v2 Hershkovitz Montiaceae Synopsis of a new taxonomic synthesis of Montiaceae (Portulacineae) based on rational metadata analysis, with critical new insights on historically poorly understood taxa and a review of ecological evolution and phylogeography Mark Alan HERSHKOVITZ1 1Santiago, Chile
[email protected] Abstract: Montiaceae (Portulacineae) comprise a clade of at least 280 species and ca. 30 subspecific taxa primarily of western America and Australia. This work uses existing phylogenetic metadata to elaborate a new cladistic taxonomic synthesis, and clarifies morphological circumscriptions of several poorly known species. A total of 20 taxa are validated, seven new and 13 necessary nomenclatural recombinations. Hypotheses of Montiaceae historical biogeography and phenotypic evolution are evaluated in light of recent metadata. Key words: Montiaceae, taxonomy, phylogeny, ecology, phylogeography, evolution. 1. Introduction This work presents a new cladistic taxonomy of Montiaceae (Portulacineae) and several of its included taxa, along with notes on the diagnostics of certainly poorly known species and a summary of new interpretations of phylogeography and phenotypic and ecological evolution. The present work includes 20 nomenclatural novelties. However, the whole of the novelty is greater than the sum of these parts. The generic circumscriptions and diversity estimates are modified from Hernández-Ledesma et al. (2015).The suprageneric taxonomy is the first proposed since McNeill (1974) and the only phylogenetic one. Critical reevaluation of certain common and usually misidentified Chilean taxa is the first since Reiche (1898). Existing metadata are interpreted as evidence for a hybrid origin of a genus.