Morphometric and phylogenetic analysis of theDaviesia ulicifolia complex (Fabaceae, Mirbelieae)

Daviesia ulicifolia is a widespread species that exhibits complex variation throughout its range. Using ordination and cluster analysis of morphometric characters we resolved ten terminal taxa for phylogenetic analysis. A data set including these and five closely related species was coded for a combination of morphometric and qualitative characters and analysed using parsimony. This revealed thatD. ulicifolia is paraphyletic by inclusion ofD. acicularis, D. arenaria andD. microcarpa. One terminal cluster is more similar to an outgroup species (D. arthropoda) than toD. ulicifolia and should be treated as a new species. Given recent theoretical and empirical studies showing paraphyly to be both expected and observed at species level, we propose that all existing species in this group continue to be recognised taxonomically. We suggest subdividingD. ulicifolia into several subspecies.