Evolution of Australian sundews (Drosera spp.).

Luis T. Williamson (The University of Adelaide); Ed Biffin (State Herbarium of South Australia); Kor-Jent van Dijk (The University of Adelaide); John G. Conran (The University of Adelaide); Michelle Waycott (State Herbarium of South Australia and The University of Adelaide).

Since the first sundews (Drosera L. spp.) were described in 1753, the taxonomy of Drosera has been in a state of flux, with additional species described regularly. Drosera is most diverse in Australia; however, the evolutionary relationships between taxa within the major groups remain poorly understood. Previous phylogenetic studies show conflict between phylogenetic tree topologies and the traditional higher classifications for some taxonomic groups; however, these studies included comparatively few Australian taxa and were limited mainly to rbcL and ITS sequence data. In order to assess the monophyly of each group, we partnered with the Genomics for Australian Plants Initiative (GAP) to sequence representatives from all Australian Drosera subgenera and sections. Using the Angiosperms353 and OzBaits bait sets, we recovered genomic data from hundreds of nuclear regions for 96 Drosera samples from field collections and herbarium accessions across Australia, including the type species for each subgenus and section where possible. Here, we present our preliminary analyses of this large genomic library. These results provide a backbone phylogeny for the genus in Australia and show that the current infrageneric classification requires updating, especially for the tuberous sundews (section Ergaleium Planch.).