Description:
<jats:title>Significance</jats:title><jats:p>Motivated by the desire to estimate phylogenetic trees from data on collections of taxa rather than just pairs, in 2004 a new variant of phylogenetic tree reconstruction was introduced, and two important theoretical questions were asked about it. One of these questions was solved within a few years; the other remained open until now. We resolve this second question and in doing so significantly enlarge a bridge between phylogenetics and a rapidly developing area of contemporary mathematics called tropical geometry.</jats:p>