Solanoideae is a subfamily of the

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

family

Solanaceae The Solanaceae , or nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and o ...

, and is sister to the subfamily

Nicotianoideae Nicotianoideae is a subfamily within the family ''Solanaceae''. Most genera are found in Australia, but they are also found in America and Africa. The subfamily contains eight genera and about 125 species, 90 of them are included in ''Nicotiana'' ...

. Within Solanaceae, Solanoideae contains some of the most economically important genera and species, such as the

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word , ...

(''Solanum lycopersicum''),

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Un ...

(''Solanum tuberosum''),

eggplant Eggplant ( US, Canada), aubergine ( UK, Ireland) or brinjal (Indian subcontinent, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit. Mo ...

or aubergine (''Solanum melongena''), chili and bell peppers (''

Capsicum ''Capsicum'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae, native to the Americas, cultivated worldwide for their chili pepper or bell pepper fruit. Etymology and names The generic name may come from Latin , mean ...

'' spp.), mandrakes ('' Mandragora'' spp.), and jimson weed (''

Datura stramonium ''Datura stramonium'', known by the common names thorn apple, jimsonweed (jimson weed), devil's snare, or devil's trumpet, is a poisonous flowering plant of the nightshade family Solanaceae. It is a species belonging to the '' Datura'' genus ...

''). This subfamily consists of several well-established

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

: Capsiceae, Datureae,

Hyoscyameae Hyoscyameae is an Old World tribe of the subfamily Solanoideae of the flowering plant family Solanaceae. It comprises eight genera: ''Anisodus'', '' Archihyoscyamus'', '' Atropa'', '' Atropanthe'', ''Hyoscyamus'', '' Physochlaina'', '' Przewalsk ...

, Juanulloeae,

Lycieae ''Lycieae'' is a tribe of flowering plants in the subfamily Solanoideae of the family Solanaceae. It comprises two genera: ''Lycium ''Lycium'' is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The genus has a disjunct distr ...

, Nicandreae,

Nolaneae ''Nolana'' (Chilean bell flower) is a genus of hard annual or perennial plants in the nightshade family. The genus is mostly native to Chile and Peru. Species in this genus, especially '' N. paradoxa'', serve as a model system for studies on ...

, Physaleae, Solandreae, and Solaneae. The subfamily also contains the contended tribes

Mandragoreae ''Mandragora'' is a plant genus belonging to the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Members of the genus are known as mandrakes. Between three and five species are placed in the genus. The one or two species found around the Mediterranean constitut ...

and Jaboroseae.

Tribal relationships

The relationship between the

has recently been well described. Nicandreae is the most

basal Basal or basilar is a term meaning ''base'', ''bottom'', or ''minimum''. Science * Basal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features associated with the base of an organism or structure * Basal (medicine), a minimal level that is nec ...

tribe of the family, placing sister to the other 9 (or by some counts 11) tribes. Datureae lies sister to Nicandreae, Physaleae, Capsiceae, and Solaneae. Solaneae + (Physaleae + Capsiceae) form a well-supported

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...

group, but the exact branching within the clade remains unclear.

References

External links

Asterid subfamilies {{Solanales-stub