Format: ORAL

Sangay DemaA, *, Rose L. AndrewA, Ian R.H. TelfordA and Jeremy J. BruhlA

N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium, University of New England, Armidale, Australia

Phebalium Vent. sect. Phebalium Duretto Heslewood is an Australian endemic monophyletic group of species with 14 species distributed in south-western Australia and 21 in eastern Australia. Most species of Phebalium have strong horticultural potential, while many are narrowly endemic and of high conservation value. Underpinned by morphological, phytochemical and molecular data, we recognised 15 new species, and we are reinstating four species and raising eight subspecies to the rank of species. From the few previous studies in Phebalium, most species-level relationships remained untested or unresolved. Our SNP-based phylogenetic analysis of all eastern Australian Phebalium taxa, including the newly delimited species, was carried out using maximum likelihood with IQ-TREE2 and maximum parsimony with PAUP. We also inferred phylogenetic relationships under a coalescent model using SVDquartets. The phylogenetic relationships inferred under all models were concordant. Our analyses recovered three major clades within eastern Australian Phebalium corresponding to three species complexes involving P. squamulosum, P. glandulosum and P.nottii. The monophyly and inter-specific relationships of most of the eastern Australian species of Phebalium were resolved and will be discussed.