How to tackle revisions of large genera: lessons from <i>Macaranga</i> and <i>Mallotus</i> (<i>Euphorbiaceae</i>)

Abstract

Two approaches to revise large genera are discussed.The first approach can be done by a single person, who revises the genus area after area.The other approach is by a team that revises per infrageneric taxon (preferably a single person per infrageneric group).The two approaches have their positive and negative sides, but both give good results.One problem with both approaches is to keep an overview of a possible infrageneric classification.The latter problem can be tackled by performing phylogenetic analyses based on molecular markers (providing core phylogeny) in combination with morphological, palynological, and anatomical data (providing apomorphies for infrageneric taxa).