Abstract
Crotalaria L. (Crotalarieae, Fabaceae) is among the largest legume genera consisting of ca. 702 species with the majority of the species (ca. 400) distributed in tropical and sub-tropical Africa. The current existing global sectional classification of Crotalaria does not include the majority of the West African species. Nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene region of seven species of Crotalaria from West Africa was sampled with the aim of determining their phylogenetic relationships and position based on the current sectional classification. Dataset was analyzed using parsimony and Bayesian MCMC (MrBayes) approaches. The result showed that C. macrocalyx, C. senegalensisand C. pallidawere closely related and belonged to Hediriocarpae Glade while C. retusa and C. goreensis, C. atrurubens, C. barkae fell within the Calycinae, Stipulosae, Longirostres and Incanae clades respectively. Our results also showed that C. retusawas resolved as sister to southern African C. papilosain Calycinae Glade. The result of this is study supports the sectional classification in Crotalaria and helps in revealing the phylogenetic position of the poorly studied West African species.