Phylogeny of Gymnosperms: Fact and Fiction.
A review of the phylogeny of the Gymnosperms, in particular the families of Coniferales; e.g. Pinaceae including the genera Pinus and Abies. In order not to mislead readers, who are not trained cladists, only a very few cladograms are shown. Originally the author reconstructed some molecular genetic cladograms (not published) in 1999 based on the rbcL, 18S rRNA and 28S rRNA genesequences from the GenBank. This paper from 2001 is based on the cladograms from 1999 together with almost all other investigations done by other scientists concerning the subject. As a result of this new material, the root of Gnetales in the 2001 edition is placed near Coniferales (but probably not inside it), whereas in the 1999 edition Gnetales was placed as a sistergroup to the Angiosperms (and not together with the other Gymnosperms), due to the cladograms of rbcL and 28S rRNA. Ordinary chemical evidence has not helped to solve any problems, while the flavour of the essential oils in the conifer-needles (estimated by biting in the needles) supports the found family relations rather good.