Abstract: The Nymphaeaceae are one of the most important taxa for understanding the origin and evolution of primitive angiosperms due to its basal position in the cladograms of the angiosperms recently given based both on several gene sequences and on morphological characters, but phylogenetic relationships within the family have not as yet been resolved. The sequences of nrDNA ITS region of 11 species representing seven genera of the Nymphaeaceae and one outgroup, Ceratophyllum demersum, were used to reconstruct the phylogeny of the family using PAUP4.0b4A. Three most parsimonious trees (Length=1125, CI=0.7618 and RI=0.7214) were obtained. In the consensus tree: (1) Nelumbo was basal to the other genera with a bootstrap value of 100% and occupied an isolated position, so it could be separated from the Nymphaeaceae and placed in its own family, Nelumbonaceae, and its own order, Nelumbonales; (2) Nuphar was monophyletic, nested in the basal position of clade II and was strongly supported to be the sister group of the other genera (excluding Nelumbo) of the Nymphaeaceae, suggesting that its traditional inclusion in the Nymphaeaceae should be maintained; (3) Cabomba and Brasenia were sister group and formed a subclade with a bootstrap value of 99%, indicating their close affinity; (4) Nymphaea was strongly supported to be the sister group of a subclade comprising Euryale and Victoria with a bootstrap value of 94%, indicating that they should be placed in the Nymphaeaceae.

Key words: Nymphaeaceae, ITS, phylogeny.