The Cardueae are a tribe of flowering plants in the daisy family (Asteraceae) and the subfamily Carduoideae. Most of them are commonly known as thistles; four of the best known genera are Carduus, Cynara (containing the widely eaten artichoke and cardoni), Cirsium, and Onopordum.
They are annual, biennial, or perennial herbs. Many species are thorny on leaves, stems, or involucre, and some have laticifers or resin conduits. Almost 80 genera comprising 2500 species are assigned to this tribe,Dittrich, 1977, The Biology and Chemistry of the Compositae 2:1017-1038 native of temperate regions of Europe and Asia (especially the Mediterranean region and Minor Asia), Australia and tropical Africa; only three genera contain species native to the Americas.Bremer 1994 Asteraceae: Cladistic and Classification [Tribe Carduae: 112-156]
Taxonomy The correct name for the tribe has been disputed. In 1806, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Augustin Pyramus de Candolle published the name Cynarocephalae. This is a descriptive name, referring to the bluish colour of the flower heads. Such descriptive names for tribes are not valid under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, which requires them to be based on a generic name. The name has been corrected by some authors to Cynareae, but this was not the name that was published in 1806. Christian Friedrich Lessing published Cynareae in 1830, but Henri Cassini had already published Cardueae in 1819, and as Lessing included Carduus in Cynareae, his name was superfluous.
Some authors have divided the plants traditionally held to be in this tribe into three tribes: Cynareae in the narrow sense, Carlineae, and Echinopeae. However, other authors have retained the traditional broader classification.
Subtribes and genera
Arctiinae Garcia-Jacas & Susanna Arctium Cousinia Berardiinae Garcia-Jacas & Susanna Berardia CardopatiinaeLess. Cardopatium Cousiniopsis Carduinae Dumort. Afrocarduus Moreyra, Lucía D., Núria Garcia-Jacas, Cristina Roquet, Jennifer R. Ackerfield, Turan Arabacı, Carme Blanco-Gavaldà, Christian Brochmann, Juan Antonio Calleja, Tuncay Dirmenci, Kazumi Fujikawa, and et al. 2023. African Mountain Thistles: Three New Genera in the Carduus-Cirsium Group. Plants 12, no. 17: 3083. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12173083 Afrocirsium × Carduogalactites × Cirsio-carduus Carduus Cirsium Cynara Epitrachys Galactites Lamyropsis Nuriaea Notobasis Picnomon Ptilostemon Silybum Tyrimnus Carlininae Dumort. Atractylis Atractylodes Carlina Thevenotia Tugarinovia Centaureinae Dumort. Amberboa Callicephalus Carduncellus Carthamus Centaurea Centaurodendron Centaurothamnus Cheirolophus Crocodilium Crupina Femeniasia Goniocaulon Karvandarina Klasea Leuzea Mantisalca Myopordon Nikitinia Oligochaeta Phalacrachena Phonus Plagiobasis Plectocephalus Psephellus Rhaponticoides Russowia Schischkinia Serratula Stizolophus Tricholepis Volutaria Yunquea Zoegea Dipterocominae Garcia-Jacas & Susanna Dipterocome Echinopsinae Dumort. Echinops Onopordinae Garcia-Jacas & Susanna Alfredia Ancathia Lamyropappus Olgaea Onopordum Synurus Syreitschikovia Xanthopappus Saussureinae Garcia-Jacas & Susanna Dolomiaea Jurinea Polytaxis Saussurea Staehelininae Garcia-Jacas & Susanna Staehelina Xerantheminae Cass. ex Dumort. Amphoricarpos Chardinia Shangwua Siebera Xeranthemum
References