The ''Cladrastis'' clade is a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

of the

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

subfamily

Faboideae The Faboideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. An acceptable alternative name for the subfamily is Papilionoideae, or Papilionaceae when this group of plants is treated as a family. This subfamily is wide ...

(or

Papilionaceae The Faboideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. An acceptable alternative name for the subfamily is Papilionoideae, or Papilionaceae when this group of plants is treated as a family. This subfamily is widely ...

) that is found in eastern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

and southern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. It is consistently resolved in

molecular phylogenies Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

and is sister to the Meso-Papilionoideae. Evidence for the existence of this clade was first proposed based on morphological (floral), cytological, and biochemical evidence. It is predicted to have diverged from the other legume lineages 47.4±2.6 million years ago (in the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

Description

This clade is composed of three genera: ''

Cladrastis ''Cladrastis'' (yellowwood) is a genus of nine species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, eight native to eastern Asia, and one to southeastern North America. Species of ''Cladrastis'' are small to medium-sized deciduous trees typically ...

'', the monotypic ''

Pickeringia ''Pickeringia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. It was recently assigned to the unranked, monophyletic ''Cladrastis'' clade. It was named after the naturalist Charles Pickering. Its only species is ''Pic ...

'', and ''

Styphnolobium ''Styphnolobium'' is a small genus of three or four species of small trees and shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae, formerly included within a broader interpretation of the genus '' Sophora''. It was recently assigned to ...

''. Fossils of species of ''Cladrastis'' and ''Styphnolobium'' have been discovered. The name of this clade is informal and is not assumed to have any particular

taxonomic rank In biological classification, taxonomic rank is the relative level of a group of organisms (a taxon) in an ancestral or hereditary hierarchy. A common system consists of species, genus, family (biology), family, order (biology), order, class (b ...

like the names authorized by the

ICBN The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all those "trad ...

or the ICPN. The clade is defined as:

"The most inclusive
crown clade In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor. ...
containing ''
Cladrastis kentukea ''Cladrastis kentukea'', the Kentucky yellowwood or American yellowwood (syn. ''C. lutea'', ''C. tinctoria''), is a species of ''Cladrastis'' native to the Southeastern United States, with a restricted range from western North Carolina west to e ...
'' (Dum. Cours.) Rudd 1971 but not ''
Dermatophyllum secundiflorum ''Dermatophyllum secundiflorum'' is a species of flowering shrub or small tree in the family Fabaceae that is native to the Southwestern United States (Texas, New Mexico) and Mexico ( Chihuahua and Coahuila south to Hidalgo, Puebla, and Querétar ...
'' (Ortega) Gandhi & Reveal 2011 or '' Swartzia simplex'' Spreng. 1825."

References

External links

The ''Cladrastis'' clade at the Tree of Life

Cladrastis clade The ''Cladrastis'' clade is a monophyletic clade of the flowering plant subfamily Faboideae (or Papilionaceae) that is found in eastern Asia and southern North America. It is consistently resolved in molecular phylogenies and is sister to th ...

Plant unranked clades {{Faboideae-stub