The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae were first described in the year 1740. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger family is unclear as the quantity of extant species in each family is unknown.
Eupatorieae is a tribe of over 2000 species of plants in the family Asteraceae. Most of the species are native to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate areas of the Americas, but some are found elsewhere. Well-known members are Stevia rebaudiana, a number of medicinal plants (Eupatorium), and a variety of late summer to autumn blooming garden flowers, including Ageratum (flossflower), Conoclinium (mistflower), and Liatris.
Gazania is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, native to Southern Africa.
Distephanus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. It is described by American botanist Harold E. Robinson as having over 40 species and by David Mabberley as having only 34 species. These sources differ sharply in their description of the range of the genus. Robinson has it ranging throughout Africa and occurring also in India and China. Mabberley has it restricted to southeast Africa, Madagascar, and Mauritius.
Barnadesioideae is a subfamily of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae. It comprises a single tribe, the Barnadesieae. The subfamily is endemic to South America. Molecular evidence suggests it is a basal clade within the family, and it is monophyletic.
The Cichorioideae are a subfamily of the family Asteraceae of flowering plants. Familiar members of Cichorioideae include lettuce, dandelions, chicory and Gazania species. The subfamily comprises about 240 genera and about 2900 species. It is heterogeneous and hard to characterize except with molecular characters.
Hecastocleis is a genus of low thorny shrubs with stiff branches, assigned to the daisy family. At the tip of each of the branches, inflorescences are subtended by oval, thorny, whitish to greenish bracts that enclose several flower heads which each contain only one pinkish bud, opening into a white corolla. It contains but one species, Hecastocleis shockleyi, the only representative of the tribe Hecastocleideae, and of the subfamily Hecastocleidoideae. Its vernacular name is prickleleaf. It is confined to the southwestern United States.
Anthemideae is a tribe of flowering plants in the family, Asteraceae, and the subfamily Asteroideae. They are distributed worldwide with concentrations in central Asia, the Mediterranean Basin, and southern Africa. Most species of plant known as chamomile belong to genera of this tribe.
Liabeae is a tribe in the plant family Asteraceae. It is endemic to the Neotropics, where it is most diverse in the northern and central Andes. The center of diversity is in Peru.
Coreopsideae is a tribe of flowering plants belonging to the Asteroideae subfamily. It includes widely cultivated genera such as Cosmos and Dahlia.
Gymnarrhena is a deviant genus of plants in the family Asteraceae, with only one known species, Gymnarrhena micrantha. It is native to North Africa and the Middle East, as far east as Balochistan. Together with the very different Cavea tanguensis it constitutes the tribe Gymnarrheneae, and in the subfamily Gymnarrhenoideae.
Heterolepis is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family. It has three or four species, all endemic to the Western Cape Province in South Africa.
Hoplophyllum is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. It has two species, Hoplophyllum spinosum and Hoplophyllum ferox, both native to South Africa.
Platycarpha is a genus of South African plants within the family Asteraceae.
Catamixis is a genus assigned to the family Asteraceae, with only one known species, Catamixis baccharoides, a low to medium height, ¾—1¾ m, shrub. It is native to a very small area of western Nepal and northern India in the Himalayas. It has approximately spoon-shaped, leathery leaves with distanced rounded teeth alternately set along straight, shyly branching stems, and carries many flower heads of about 1 cm, with a few creamy white florets, sometimes with a hint of violet, in corymbs at the end of the branches. Flowers and fruits can be found between March and May. Its vernacular name in Hindi is विषपत्री (vishpatri) or विश्पत्र (vishpatra).
Cavea is a low perennial herbaceous plant that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. Cavea tanguensis is currently the only species assigned to this genus. It has a basal rosette of entire, slightly leathery leaves, and stems of 5–25 cm high, topped by bowl-shaped flower heads with many slender florets with long pappus and purplish corollas. The vernacular name in Chinese is 葶菊. It grows high in the mountains of China (Sichuan), Tibet, India (Sikkim), and Bhutan, and flowers in July and August.
Cymbonotus lawsonianus, commonly known as bears ear, is a species of small shrub in the family Asteraceae from southeastern Australia. It has been described as Arctotis lawsoniana. It is one of three species in the small genus Cymbonotus. It was named in honour of the explorer William Lawson.
Vicki Ann Funk was an American botanist and curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, known for her work on members of the composite family (Asteraceae) including collecting plants in many parts of the world, as well as her synthetic work on phylogenetics and biogeography.
Gymnarrhenoideae is a subfamily with in the family Asteraceae, with only one tribe, the Gymnarrheneae. Two very different species have been assigned to it, Gymnarrhena micrantha, a winter annual from the deserts of North-Africa and the Middle-East, and Cavea tanguensis, a perennial herb that grows on scree near streams and glaciers in the Eastern Himalayas. These species have very little in common, other than having two types of flower heads and sharing a tendency towards dioecism. Both also have basal leaf rosettes, stretched leaves, with few spaced teeth on the margin, and both lack spines and latex.
Ambrosiinae is a subtribe of flowering plants in the tribe Heliantheae, and is endemic to the Americas.
