Differentiating Thamnocalamus Munro from Fargesia Franchet emend. Yi (Bambusoideae, Poaceae): novel evidence from morphological and neural-network analyses

Fargesia Franchet emend . Yi is closely allied with Thamnocalamus Munro but differs in many major morphological characteristics. Based on traditional morphological characters, it is difficult to differentiate these two genera. The current study measured 19 species in these two genera to determine whether variations in 12 categories of major characters are continuous. In addition, a self-organizing map (SOM) and cluster analysis were used together to reveal whether the known species of Fargesia represent discontinuous sampling of Thamnocalamus . The results show that 46 morphological characteristics exhibited high variation at the generic and species levels. In addition, the cluster analysis showed that 32 morphological characteristics of Thamnocalamus and Fargesia were divided between two species and well separated from the outgroup. Additionally, significant differences ( P