Morphological evidence for natural intergeneric hybridization in the New Zealand Gnaphalieae (Compositae): Anaphalioides bellidioides × Ewartia sinclairii

Wild intergeneric hybrids are recorded among six genera in the New Zealand Gnaphalieae, but little evidence substantiating their identity has been published. In this paper we evaluate the identity of putative hybrids between two species of Gnaphalieae endemic to New Zealand, Anaphalioides bellidioides and Ewartia sinclairii . The two species are occasionally sympatric in the north‐east of the South Island and wild putative hybrids are rarely encountered. To test the hybridity hypothesis, specimens from nine putative hybrids were collected from one site and analysed for 76 morphological characters. The putative hybrids possessed predominantly intermediate or parental character states in comparison with A. bellidioides and E. sinclairii . Extreme traits were less common and a single novel character state was recorded in two hybrids only. Non‐metric multidimensional scaling of dissimilarities derived from both continuous and discrete characters was strongly supportive of the hybridity hypothesis. Canonical discriminant analysis of the continuous characters was supportive for some putative hybrids only, in part reflecting the possession of extreme states in characters with high loadings. One of the putative hybrids was strongly indicated to be a backcross with A. bellidioides . The taxonomic treatment of cross‐compatible genera is discussed. © 2004 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society , 2004, 145 , 59−75.