Persea group
The Persea group includes the currently recognized genera Alseodaphe (ca. 50 spp.), Alseodaphnopsis (9 spp.), Apollonias (1 sp.), Dehaasia (ca. 35 spp.), Machilus (ca. 100 spp.?), Nothaphoebe (ca. 40 spp.?), Persea (ca. 100 spp.?) and Phoebe (ca. 100 spp.?). Persea is native in America and on the Makaronesisan Islands (Canary Islands, Madeira, Azores), Apollonias likewise in Makaronesia, whereas all other genera are from Asia. In spite of several molecular studies (Rohwer et al., 2009; Li et al., 2011; Mo et al., 2017), the phylogeny of the group has been only partly resolved so far. The results of the different analyses, however, do show some common features:
- Alseodaphne is not monophyletic. Therefore, one of the Alseodaphne clades has been separated as Alseodaphnopsis recently.
- The species of Dehaasia are nested among species of Alseodaphne, in the clade that includes the type of Alseodaphne. Therefore, Dehaasia should be considered a synonym of Alseodaphne.
- Machilus is monophyletic, and it does not form a clade with Persea.
- The two subgenera of Persea, subgen. Persea and subgen. Eriodaphne, appear as monophyletic groups, but not always as sister groups to each other.
- Persea subgen. Eriodaphne includes the Makaronesian Persea indica.
- Apollonias probably belongs to Persea as well.
- Several species that are currently placed in Persea, but do not fit any of the two subgenera (e.g., P. sphaerocarpa), appear in other (different) places in the phylogenetic tree, most frequently together with species that are currently placed in Alseodaphne.
- Phoebe may be monophyletic, although it is poorly supported in most datasets so far.
The positions of the main branches within the group still vary among the different analyses.