University of Missouri, St. Louis IRL @ UMSL Theses Graduate Works 8-7-2011 Towards an understanding of the evolution of Violaceae from an anatomical and morphological perspective Saul Ernesto Hoyos University of Missouri-St. Louis,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis Recommended Citation Hoyos, Saul Ernesto, "Towards an understanding of the evolution of Violaceae from an anatomical and morphological perspective" (2011). Theses. 50. http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis/50 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Works at IRL @ UMSL. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of IRL @ UMSL. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Saul E. Hoyos Gomez MSc. Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, University of Missouri-Saint Louis, 2011 Thesis Submitted to The Graduate School at the University of Missouri – St. Louis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science July 2011 Advisory Committee Peter Stevens, Ph.D. Chairperson Peter Jorgensen, Ph.D. Richard Keating, Ph.D. TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE BASAL EVOLUTION OF VIOLACEAE FROM AN ANATOMICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Saul Hoyos Introduction The violet family, Violaceae, are predominantly tropical and contains 23 genera and upwards of 900 species (Feng 2005, Tukuoka 2008, Wahlert and Ballard 2010 in press). The family is monophyletic (Feng 2005, Tukuoka 2008, Wahlert & Ballard 2010 in press), even though phylogenetic relationships within Violaceae are still unclear (Feng 2005, Tukuoka 2008). The family embrace a great diversity of vegetative and floral morphologies. Members are herbs, lianas or trees, with flowers ranging from strongly spurred to unspurred.