The Phylogeny of Rosoideae (Rosaceae) Based on Sequences of the Internal Transcribed Spacers (ITS) of Nuclear Ribosomal DNA and thetrnL/FRegion of Chloroplast DNA

The phylogeny of Rosoideae was investigated using 44 species. Here we report new sequence data from the chloroplast trnL/F region as well as an increased sample of species. The analysis of these new data, along with previously used data from the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacers (ITS), significantly increased resolution as well as confidence for Rosoideae phylogeny. Using both Bayesian inference and parsimony methods, we conducted analyses on the data sets separately and in combination. The resulting phylogenies are congruent with all well‐supported clades of Rosoideae found in previous analyses of ITS or rbcL data. The support for these and other clades is improved, and we consider several clades to be supported well enough to be named. The following clades are given phylogenetic definitions: Sanguisorbeae and its subclades Agrimoniinae and Sanguisorbinae, Potentilleae and its subclades Fragariinae and Potentilla, Roperculina (Rosa + Sanguisorbeae + Potentilleae), and Sanpotina (Sanguisorbeae + Potentilleae). Potentilla includes the Potentilla anserina clade (Argentina) in our trnL/F and combined analyses, but this relationship is not resolved by ITS alone. The previously used genera Duchesnea (Potentilla indica), Horkelia, and Ivesia are strongly supported as nested within Potentilla. Comarum (Potentilla palustris and Potentilla salesowianum), Sibbaldiopsis (Potentilla tridentata), Dasiphora (Potentilla fruticosa), and Drymocallis (Potentilla arguta) join Alchemilla, Aphanes, Sibbaldia, Chamaerhodos, and Fragaria in the well‐supported Fragariinae clade outside of Potentilla. The monophyly of both Potentilleae and Sanguisorbeae is well supported, and the clades correspond to previously named tribes with the exception of Alchemilla and its segregate Aphanes, which are nested within Potentilleae instead of in Sanguisorbeae. The position of Rubus is still not securely resolved.