Despite general acceptance of the monophyly of the monocotyledons, there are still questions that remain regarding relationships among the primary lines of evolution. We propose to bring together evidence from morphology and molecular sequences of rDNA to address this problem. This, in turn, would provide the appropriate context in which to study genome size, a feature that shows interesting patterns of variation in this group and closely related "dicotyledons". Phenotypic and ecological correlates of genome size can then be evaluated within this phylogenetic context and their evolutionary significance assessed. Funds are being sought for sequencing of rDNA and measurement of genome size using flow cytometry.
