Evolution and Classification of Musaceae Based on Male Floral Morphology.

Classification of the banana family (Musaceae) into three genera, , and , and infrageneric ranking are still ambiguous. Within the genus , five formerly separated sections were recently merged into sections and based on seed morphology, molecular data and chromosome numbers. Nevertheless, other key morphological characters of the genera, sections, and species have not been clearly defined. This research aims to investigate male floral morphology, classify members of the banana family based on overall similarity of morphological traits using 59 banana accessions of 21 taxa and make inferences of the evolutionary relationships of 57 taxa based on ITS, , and sequences from 67 Genbank and 10 newly collected banana accessions. Fifteen quantitative characters were examined using principal component analysis and canonical discriminant analysis and 22 qualitative characters were analyzed by the Unweighted Pair Group Method with an Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA). The results showed that fused tepal morphology, median inner tepal shape and length of style supported the three clades of , and , while shapes of median inner tepal and stigma classified the two sections. In conclusion, a combination of morphological characters of male flowers and molecular phylogenetics well support the taxonomic arrangement within the banana family and the genus and assist in selection of characters to construct an identification key of Musaceae.