Phylogeny of the Lamiales and Origin of the Labiatae

唇形科（薄荷科）是最大的开花植物家族之一，由于许多物种的叶子中含有芳香油（萜类），因此具有相当大的医学和商业重要性。对物种间进化关系的理解极大地促进了对这一科和其他相关科中有用植物产品的持续研究。一种反映进化（即家谱）历史的分类学分类可能有助于研究人员在已知的家族其他地方相似属性分布的基础上预测属性（包括有用的化合物）的发生。目前薄荷科的分类很大程度上是基于一个多世纪前的工作，并建立在一个假设上，即薄荷科是一个自然群体，可能是从马鞭草科（柚木）家族的单一来源进化而来的。这个长期存在的前提与俄亥俄大学的Philip Cantino博士最近的研究相矛盾，他认为薄荷是从热带马鞭草科联盟的几个不同亚群进化而来的。该研究的主要目的是通过对两个科中各种形态特征分布的计算机分析来验证这一假设，特别强调从光学和扫描电子显微镜获得的新花粉数据。将花粉数据与叶、茎、花和果实的形态学证据相结合，将有可能解决唇形草科和马鞭草科主要属群之间的进化关系。这将是对这两个家族进行更具预测性和有用的分类的重要一步，这反过来又将促进寻找新的萜类特征。

The Labiatae (mint family), one of the largest families of flowering plants, is of considerable medical and commercial importance because of the aromatic oils (terpenoids) that occur in the foliage of many species. The ongoing search for useful plant products in this and other related families is greatly facilitated by an understanding of evolutionary relationships among the species. A taxonomic classification that reflects evolutionary (that is, genealogical) history is likely to help researchers predict the occurrence of attributes (including useful chemical compounds) on the basis of the known distribution of similar attributes elsewhere in the family. The current classification of the mint family is based heavily on work done over a century ago and is founded on the assumption that the family is a natural group that likely evolved from a single source in the Verbenaceae (teak) family. This long-standing premise is contradicted by recent research by Dr. Philip Cantino at Ohio University, which suggests that the mints have evolved from several different subgroups of the tropical Verbenaceae alliance. A primary objective of the proposed research is to test this hypothesis using a computer analysis of the distribution of a wide variety of morphological characteristics in both families, with special emphasis on new pollen data derived from light- and scanning electron microscopy. Integration of the pollen data with evidence from leaf, stem, flower, and fruit morphology will make it possible to resolve the evolutionary relationships among the major groups of genera of Labiatae and Verbenaceae. This will represent a major step toward a more predictive and useful classification of both families, which in turn will facilitate the search for new, terpenoid characters.