The Cichorioideae are a

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s. Familiar members of Cichorioideae include

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae mostly grown as a leaf vegetable. The leaves are most often used raw in Green salad, green salads, although lettuce is also seen in other kinds of food, such as sandwiche ...

dandelion ''Taraxacum'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology. The genus has a near-cosmopolitan distribu ...

s, chicory and '' Gazania'' species. The subfamily comprises about 240

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

and about 2900

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. It is heterogeneous and hard to characterize except with molecular characters.

Taxonomy

The subfamily as understood in 1998 turned out to be

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

, based on studies of

DNA sequence A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases within the nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. This succession is denoted by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of the nu ...

s, so a number of

tribes The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

were moved to new subfamilies. Names for the new subfamilies were published in 2002. In 2004, 2007, and 2008,

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies further clarified relationships within Cichorioideae.Sterling C. Keeley, Zac H. Forsman, and Raymund Chan. 2007. "A phylogeny of the "evil tribe" (Vernonieae: Compositae) reveals Old/New World long distance dispersal: Support from separate and combined congruent datasets (''trn''L-F, ''ndh''F, ITS)". ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 44(1):89-103.Jose L. Panero and Vicki A. Funk. 2008. "The value of sampling anomalous taxa in phylogenetic studies: Major clades of the Asteraceae revealed". ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 47(2):757–782. Major

works Works may refer to: People * Caddy Works (1896–1982), American college sports coach * John D. Works (1847–1928), California senator and judge * Samuel Works (c. 1781–1868), New York politician Albums * ''Works'' (Pink Floyd album), a Pi ...

on Asteraceae were published in 2007 and 2009. These were the only comprehensive treatments of the family since 1994.Kåre Bremer (with the assistance of Arne A. Anderberg, Per Ola Karis, Bertil Nordenstam, Johannes Lundberg, and Olof Ryding). 1994. ''Asteraceae: cladistics and classification''. Timber Press: Oregon, USA. . In the 2007 book, ''

Gundelia ''Gundelia'' or tumble thistle is a low to high (20–100 cm) thistle-like Perennial plant, perennial herbaceous plant with latex, spiny compound inflorescences, reminiscent of teasles and eryngos, that contain cream, yellow, greenish, pink, ...

'' and '' Warionia'' were segregated from the tribe

Cichorieae The Cichorieae (also called Lactuceae) are a tribe in the plant family Asteraceae that includes 93 genera, more than 1,600 sexually reproductive species and more than 7,000 apomictic species. They are found primarily in temperate regions of the E ...

to form the tribe Gundelieae. '' Eremothamnus'', '' Hoplophyllum'', '' Heterolepis'', and '' Platycarpha'' were placed ''

incertae sedis or is a term used for a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

'' in tribe Arctotideae, while '' Distephanus'', '' Trichospira'', '' Moquinia'', and '' Pseudostifftia'' were placed in the tribe Vernonieae.Klaus Kubitzki (series editor); Joachim W. Kadereit and Charles Jeffrey (volume editors). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume VIII. Springer-Verlag: Berlin; Heidelberg, Germany. Some of this

classification Classification is the activity of assigning objects to some pre-existing classes or categories. This is distinct from the task of establishing the classes themselves (for example through cluster analysis). Examples include diagnostic tests, identif ...

was not supported by

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

studies that came out later. For example, the tribe Arctotideae was only weakly supported as

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

, but its two subtribes, Arctotidinae and Gorteriinae, were strongly supported. In the 2009 book, the Gundelieae were sunk into the

. The new tribe Platycarpheae was recognized, as well as the tribes Eremothamneae and Moquinieae. ''Heterolepis'' was placed in the Arctotideae, at least provisionally. ''Distephanus'' was not placed in the Moquinieae or the Vernonieae, but is closely related to them. (see ''External links'' below). '' Trichospira'' was placed in the Vernonieae, but its inclusion there is in doubt.

Phylogeny

The following

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or Taxon, taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, M ...

is from ''Systematics, Evolution and Biogeography of the Compositae'', except the tribe Gundelieae is recognized and the genus '' Trichospira'' is now included in Vernonieae.

References

External links

Classification (compositae book, chapter 11
At
The International Compositae Alliance

Cichorioideae
At
Tree of Life

Phylogenetic Analysis of the Cichorioideae (Asteraceae), with Emphasis on the Mutisieae
* At
Uniprot Taxonomy
At
Uniprot
* * * {{Authority control Asterales subfamilies