Abstract

A phenetic study of six species of Chilean Loranthaceae Tristerix corymbosus (L) Kuijt, T. verticillatus (Ruîz et Pavôn) Barlow et Wiens, T. aphyllus (Miers ex DC) Van Thieg, Desmaria mutabilis (Ruiz et Pavön) Van Thieg, Notanthera heterophylla (Ruiz et Pavön) G. Don and Ligaria cuneifolia (Ruiz et Pavön) Van Tieg ex Barlow et Wiens and the two species of the Eremolepidaceae of Chile: Lepidoceras chilensis (Mol.) Kuijt and Antidaphne punctulata (Clos) Kuijt, are reported. This study is based on flavonoids as chemical character. The phenetic ralationships of the eight species were studied using the Jaccard coefficient and UPGMA as a clustering algorithm. This study showed that there exists a close relationship between the species of the genus Tristerix, forming a well defined group connected with the other genera of the family Loranthaceae: Ligaria, Desmaria and Notanthera. The species Lepidoceras chilensis and Antidaphne punctuata, belonging to the Eremolepidaceae, are closely related betwen themselves and are distantly related to all the other species. These results agree with the work done by Kuijt in 1988 based on morphological characters.