Species delimitation of African Pterocarpus
Reliable species delimitation is fundamental for establishing clear and equitable guidelines on the sustainable harvest of economically important organisms. Pterocarpus (Fabaceae) is a pantropical tree genus including several highly valuable timber-producing species, that face significant threats from intensive logging. However, a lack of taxonomic clarity has hindered the advance of logging regulations and has led to the inclusion of all African Pterocarpus populations under CITES regulations (CoP19). In our study, we addressed this issue by reassessing species delimitation of African Pterocarpus using a phylogenetic approach. We aimed to assess whether currently accepted species, identified based on morphological characters appear monophyletic, thereby supporting their species status. Our second goal was to evaluate the potential of high-copy genetic material to provide markers for species identification, useful in enforcement of illegal logging and especially important for the five highly logged rosewood species (P. angolensis, P. erinaceus, P. lucens, P. soyauxii and P. tinctorius). We aimed to achieve this by comparing species delimitation between phylogenetic trees obtained via cpDNA and rDNA to that obtained from the low-copy nuclear genes (Angiosperms353).