Comparative biomorphological study of the taxonomy and Phylogeny of the genera Consolida (DC.)S.F. Gray and Aconitella Spach

Abstract

Phylogenetic connections within the genus Consolida and between the genera Consolida and Aconitella have been revealed as a result of the comparison of anatomical, k.aryological and morphological data. This study has confinned the correctness or the intrageneric division of the genus Consolida proposed by E. Huth (1895), for three out or the five sections growing on the territory of the USSR. Taxonomical rank. has been specified fo r the youngest and most highly evolved group of species of the genus Aconitella, which is regarded by many botanists as beingwithin the limits of the genus Consolida. The taxonomical position of Aconitella barbata (Bunge) Sojak, whose morphological rentures are intermediate between the genera Aconitella and Consolida, has been stated exactly. The main trends in the evolution or the tribe Delphineae have been identified: beginning from the primarily perennial mesophytic genus Aconitum, which is the most primitive in its anatomical, karyological and morphological features. through a series of unknown forms to the genus Delphinium;and also from the representatives of' the annual section Delphinium of the subgenus Delphinium to the genera Consolida and Aconitella.