''Distephanus'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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 in 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 ...

.Harold E. Robinson. 2007. "Vernonieae" pages 149-174. In: 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. It is described by American botanist Harold E. Robinson as having over 40 species and by David Mabberley as having only 34 species.David J. Mabberley. 2008. ''Mabberley's Plant-Book'' third edition (2008). Cambridge University Press: UK. These sources differ sharply in their description of the

range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

of the genus. Robinson has it ranging throughout

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and occurring also in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Mabberley has it restricted to southeast Africa,

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

, and

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

. ''

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

'' accepts 44 species native to sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, and south-central China. The genus ''Distephanus'' consists of

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s, and

vine A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

s. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are often trinervate. The

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s are in terminal

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s and are usually yellow. The

anther The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s have an appendage called a tail. The base of the

style Style, or styles may refer to: Film and television * ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal * ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film * ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film * '' ...

is enlarged. The

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

''Distephanus'' is derived from

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and means "two crowns", a reference to the two

whorls A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). In nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral diagram ...

of bristles that form the pappus.Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. ''CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names'' volume II:822. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington, DC;, USA. London, UK. . (vol. 2). (see ''External links'' below). The genus ''Distephanus'' was established by

Alexandre de Cassini Viscount Alexandre Henri Gabriel (vicomte) de Cassini (9 May 1781 – 23 April 1832) was a French botanist and naturalist, who specialised in the sunflower family (Asteraceae) (then known as family Compositae). He was the youngest of five childre ...

in 1817.Alexandre H.G. de Cassini. 1817. ''Bulletin des Sciences, par la Société Philomatique de Paris''. (1817):151. Cassini described the type species, ''Distephanus populifolia'' in 1819.Alexandre H.G. de Cassini. 1819. ''Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles, ... Strasbourg. edition 2. (F. Cuvier).'' 19:361. This species had originally been named ''Conyza populifolia'' by

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biologi ...

in 1786.Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. 1786. ''Encyclopedie Methodique. Botanique ... Paris''. 2(1):87. ''Distephanus'' has usually been placed in the tribe

Vernonieae Vernonieae is a tribe of about 1300 species of plants in the aster family. They are mostly found in the tropics and warmer temperate areas, both in the Americas and the Old World. They are mostly herbaceous plants or shrubs, although there is a ...

, but the results of some

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 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 have cast doubt upon this placement. In one

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 ...

of Asteraceae, it was placed in a tritomy consisting of ''Distephanus'', Moquinieae, and

.Vicki A. Funk, Alfonso Susanna, Tod F. Stuessy, and Randall J. Bayer. 2009. ''Systematics, Evolution and Biogeography of the Compositae''. IAPT (International Association for Plant Taxonomy). (see ''External links'' below). In 2024 Gostel ''et al.'' concluded that the genus belonged in its own tribe, Distephaneae. ''Distephanus'' differs from (other) genera in Vernonieae in having yellow flowers as well as in other characters that are less obvious.Harold E. Robinson. 1986. "Trinervate leaves, yellow flowers, tailed anthers, and pollen variation in ''Distephanus'' Cassini (Vernonieae: Asteraceae)". ''Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington'' 99(3):493-501.

Species

44 species are accepted. * '' Distephanus ambongensis'' * '' Distephanus angolensis'' (O.Hoffm.) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus angulifolius'' (DC.) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus anisochaetoides'' (Sond.) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus antandroy'' (Humbert) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus bakeri'' * '' Distephanus bara'' * '' Distephanus biafrae'' (Oliv. & Hiern) H.Rob. * '' Distephanus capitatus'' * '' Distephanus capuronii'' * '' Distephanus cloiselii'' (Moore) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus divaricatus'' (Steetz) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus eriophyllus'' (Drake) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus forrestii'' (Anthony) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus garnierianus'' (Klatt) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus glandulicinctus'' (Humbert) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus glutinosus'' (DC.) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus grevei'' * '' Distephanus henryi'' (Dunn) H.Rob. * '' Distephanus ibityensis'' * '' Distephanus inhacensis'' * '' Distephanus lastellei'' (Drake) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus madagascariensis ''(Less.) H. Rob. & V.A. FunkH. Rob. & V.A. Funk. 2012. Taxon 61(2): 452 * '' Distephanus mahafaly'' (Humbert) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus majungensis'' (Humbert) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus malacophytus'' (Baker) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus manambolensis'' (Humbert) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus mangokensis'' (Humbert) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus nummulariifolius'' * '' Distephanus ochroleucus'' (Baker) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus plumosus'' * '' Distephanus poissonii'' * '' Distephanus polygalifolius'' (Less.) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus populifolius'' (Lam.) Cass. * '' Distephanus qazmi'' N.Kilian & A.G.Mill.Norbert Kilian and Anthony G. Miller. 2000. Studies in the Compositae of the Arabian Peninsula and Socotra - 5. ''Distephanus qazmi'' (Vernonieae, Gymnantheminae), a remarkable new species from the island of Socotra, Yemen. Willdenowia 30(1):83-91. * '' Distephanus quartziticola'' * '' Distephanus rhodopappus'' * '' Distephanus rochonioides'' (Humbert) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus spiciformis'' * '' Distephanus streptocladus'' (Baker) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus subluteus'' (Scott-Elliot) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus swinglei'' (Humbert) H.Rob. & B.Kahn * '' Distephanus trinervis'' Bojer ex DC.

References

External links

''Distephanus''
At:Index Nominum Genericorum
At:
At:
At:Research and Collections
At:Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

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

CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: D-L
At:Botany & Plant Science
At:Life Science
At:CRC Press
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5234174 Asteraceae genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Henri Cassini