Vernonieae

Little ironweed Vernonia cinerea, copyright J. M. Garg.

Belongs within: Cichorioideae.

The Vernonieae are a group of composite-flowered plants, mostly herbs to shrubs, found in tropical and subtropical parts of the world. Species of the type genus Vernonia commonly bear intensely purple flowers and certain species are used in Africa as leaf vegetables or oilseeds.

Characters (from Flora of North America): Annuals, biennials, perennials, or shrubs (rarely trees or lianas) (sap rarely milky). Leaves usually cauline, sometimes basal or basal and cauline; alternate (rarely subopposite distally or opposite); usually petiolate, sometimes sessile (or petioles winged); margins usually more or less dentate, sometimes entire (rarely lobed or dissected). Heads homogamous (discoid, rarely pseudo-radiant or -liguliflorous), usually in corymbiform, paniculiform, or scorpioid arrays, sometimes borne singly or in glomerules (rarely aggregated in second-order heads). Calyculi absent. Phyllaries usually persistent (rarely readily falling), in 2–8+ series, distinct, unequal, herbaceous to chartaceous, margins and/or apices sometimes scarious. Receptacles flat to convex, usually epaleate (often foveolate, sometimes setose). Ray florets absent (rarely corollas of peripheral florets enlarged, zygomorphic, more or less raylike). Disc florets bisexual, fertile; corollas white, ochroleucous, or pink to cyanic (rarely yellow); anther bases more or less sagittate (rarely tailed), apical appendages ovate to lanceolate; styles abaxially hirsutulous (at least distally), branches lance-linear to more or less lanceolate, adaxially continuously stigmatic from bases nearly to apices, apices acute, appendages essentially none. Cypselae more or less monomorphic within heads, columnar to clavate, fusiform, or prismatic, sometimes compressed, not beaked, bodies smooth, nerved, or ribbed (glabrous or hirsutulous to strigillose, sometimes resin-gland-dotted as well); pappi usually persistent, usually in two series (outer series of shorter, stouter bristles or narrow scales, inner of longer, usually barbellate bristles), sometimes in one series (bristles or scales, scales often aristate).

<==Vernonieae
    |--Lessingianthus D03
    |--Hesperomania T00
    |--Pacourina S06
    |--Centratherum S06
    |--Blanchetia S06
    |--Stilpnopappus S06
    |--Lepidaploa D03
    |    `--‘Vernonia’ eriolepis D03
    |--Piptocarpha N10
    |    |--P. angustifolia OB11
    |    `--P. tetrantha SWK87
    |--Mattfeldanthus D03
    |    |--M. andrade-limae (Barroso) Dematteis 2003 (see below for synonymy) D03
    |    `--M. mutisioides D03
    |--Elephantopus N10
    |    |--E. mollis N10
    |    |--E. scaber P03
    |    `--E. tomentosus K03
    `--Vernonia D03
         |--V. auriculifera PB27
         |--V. buxifolia J87
         |--V. cataractarum D03
         |--V. chamaedrys RJ11
         |--V. cinerascens PP07
         |--V. cinerea PP07
         |--V. ekmanii J87
         |--V. gertii Dematteis 2003 D03
         |--V. obionifolia CV06
         |    |--V. o. ssp. obionifolia CV06
         |    `--V. o. ssp. dentata CV06
         |--V. pattens MM96
         |--V. psilophylla D03
         |--V. riedelii H01
         |--V. saepium J87
         `--V. secunda D03

Mattfeldanthus andrade-limae (Barroso) Dematteis 2003 [=Vernonia andrade-limae Barroso 1962; incl. V. nobilis Robinson 1979, Mattfeldanthus nobilis (Robinson) Robinson 1980] D03

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[CV06] Craven, P., & P. Vorster. 2006. Patterns of plant diversity and endemism in Namibia. Bothalia 36 (2): 175–189.

[D03] Dematteis, M. 2003. New species and new combinations in Brazilian Vernonieae (Asteraceae). Taxon 52: 281–286.

[H01] Hempel, A. 1901. Descriptions of Brazilian Coccidae (continued). Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 7, 7: 556–561.

[J87] Judd, W. S. 1987. Floristic study of Morne La Visite and Pic Macaya National Parks, Haiti. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum—Biological Sciences 32 (1): 1–136.

[K03] Kulip, J. 2003. An ethnobotanical survey of medicinal and other useful plants of Muruts in Sabah, Malaysia. Telopea 10 (1): 81–98.

[MM96] Mound, L. A., & R. Marullo. 1996. The thrips of Central and South America: an introduction (Insecta: Thysanoptera). Memoirs on Entomology, International 6: 1–487.

[N10] Norrbom, A. L. 2010. Tephritidae (fruit flies, moscas de frutas). In: Brown, B. V., A. Borkent, J. M. Cumming, D. M. Wood, N. E. Woodley & M. A. Zumbado (eds) Manual of Central American Diptera vol. 2 pp. 909–954. NRC Research Press: Ottawa.

[OB11] Orenstein, R. I., & D. Brewer. 2011. Family Cardinalidae (cardinals). In: Hoyo, J. del, A. Elliott & D. A. Christie (eds) Handbook of the Birds of the World vol. 16. Tanagers to New World Blackbirds pp. 330–427. Lynx Edicions: Barcelona.

[PP07] Pandey, R. P., & P. M. Padhye. 2007. Studies on phytodiversity of Arid Machia Safari Park-Kailana in Jodhpur (Rajasthan). Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 49: 15–78.

[P03] Paul, T. K. 2003. Botanical observations on the Purulia pumped storage hydropower project area, Bagmundi Hills, Purulia district, West Bengal. Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 45: 121–142.

[PB27] Pilsbry, H. A., & J. Bequaert. 1927. The aquatic mollusks of the Belgian Congo, with a geographical and ecological account of Congo malacology. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 53 (2): 69–602, pls 10–77.

[RJ11] Rising, J. D., A. Jaramillo, J. L. Copete, P. G. Ryan & S. C. Madge. 2011. Family Emberizidae (buntings and New World sparrows). In: Hoyo, J. del, A. Elliott & D. A. Christie (eds) Handbook of the Birds of the World vol. 16. Tanagers to New World Blackbirds pp. 428–683. Lynx Edicions: Barcelona.

[SWK87] Snyder, N. F. R., J. W. Wiley & C. B. Kepler. 1987. The Parrots of Luquillo: Natural history and conservation of the Puerto Rican parrot. Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology: Los Angeles.

[S06] Stuckert, T. 1906. Distribución geográfica de la flora Argentina. Géneros de la familia de las compuestas. Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires, serie 3, 6: 303–309.

[T00] Thorne, R. F. 2000. The classification and geography of the flowering plants: dicotyledons of the class Angiospermae (subclasses Magnoliidae, Ranunculidae, Caryophyllidae, Dilleniidae, Rosidae, Asteridae, and Lamiidae). The Botanical Review 66: 441–647.

Last updated: 21 December 2019.