South African Journal of Botany 2003, 69(2): 204–206 Copyright © NISC Pty Ltd Printed in South Africa — All rights reserved SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY ISSN 0254–6299 Short Communication Phylogenetic relationships of the recently discovered species — Clivia mirabilis F Conrad1*, G Reeves1 and JP Rourke2 1 Leslie Hill Molecular Systematics Laboratory, National Botanical Institute, Private Bag X7, Claremont 7735, South Africa 2 Compton Herbarium, National Botanical Institute, Private Bag X7, Claremont 7735, South Africa * Corresponding author, email:
[email protected] Received 14 October 2002, accepted in revised form 13 January 2003 A phylogenetic study of Clivia, including the newly trnC intergenic spacer, the rps16 intron, the trnL intron described species, Clivia mirabilis, recently discovered and the trnL-F intergenic spacer (the latter two collec- in the Northern Cape, was carried out to elucidate the tively known as the trnL-F region). In the combined tree relationship of this geographically isolated taxon to the C. mirabilis is placed as sister to a clade comprising the remaining four species. DNA sequence data were col- other four taxa. lected from four non-coding plastid regions: the rpoB- The genus Clivia Lindl. (Amaryllidaceae) comprises five sequencing primers. Amplification products were purified species of which C. caulescens R.A.Dyer, C. gardenii Hook., using Qiaquick (Qiagen) spin columns according to manu- C. miniata (Lindl.) Regel and C. nobilis Lindl. are best facturer’s instructions and directly sequenced on an ABI 377 known. These four species are found in coastal and inland automated sequencer using standard dye-terminator chem- Afromontane forest along the east coast of southern Africa, istry following manufacturer’s protocols (Applied Biosystems).