Asterales is an order of dicotyledonous flowering plants that includes the large family Asteraceae known for composite flowers made of florets, and ten families related to the Asteraceae. While asterids in general are characterized by fused petals, composite flowers consisting of many florets create the false appearance of separate petals.
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.
The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a reduced pair of forelegs and many hold their colourful wings flat when resting. They are also called brush-footed butterflies or four-footed butterflies, because they are known to stand on only four legs while the other two are curled up; in some species, these forelegs have a brush-like set of hairs, which gives this family its other common name. Many species are brightly coloured and include popular species such as the emperors, monarch butterfly, admirals, tortoiseshells, and fritillaries. However, the under wings are, in contrast, often dull and in some species look remarkably like dead leaves, or are much paler, producing a cryptic effect that helps the butterflies blend into their surroundings.
The family Campanulaceae, of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky sap. Among them are several familiar garden plants belonging to the genera Campanula (bellflower), Lobelia, and Platycodon (balloonflower). Campanula rapunculus and Codonopsis lanceolata are eaten as vegetables. Lobelia inflata, L. siphilitica and L. tupa and others have been used as medicinal plants. Campanula rapunculoides may be a troublesome weed, particularly in gardens, while Legousia spp. may occur in arable fields.
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.
The Lygaeidae are a family in the Hemiptera, with more than 110 genera in four subfamilies. The family is commonly referred to as seed bugs, and less commonly, milkweed bugs, or ground bugs. However, while many of the species feed on seeds, some feed on sap (mucivory) or seed pods, others are omnivores and a few, such as the wekiu bug, are carnivores that feed exclusively on insects. Insects in this family are distributed across the world, including throughout North America. The family was vastly larger, but numerous former subfamilies have been removed and given independent family status, including the Artheneidae, Blissidae, Cryptorhamphidae, Cymidae, Geocoridae, Heterogastridae, Ninidae, Oxycarenidae and Rhyparochromidae, which together constituted well over half of the former family.
The Cynareae 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, Cirsium, and Onopordum.
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 Mutisioideae are a subfamily in the plant family Asteraceae that includes about 630 species assigned to 44 different genera. This subfamily is mainly native in South America, except for Adenocaulon, Chaptalia, Gerbera, Trichocline, which have species in all continents other than Europe and Antarctica. Common characters are the deeply incised corollas of the disc florets, with five lobes, sometimes merged in two lips, flower heads with overlapping involucral bracts, anthers with tails and pointy tips, the styles usually stick far out of the florets and are essentially hairless. Most species are herbs, but some are vines, shrubs, or small trees.
The Gochnatioideae are a subfamily of the aster family, Asteraceae. It contains the single tribe Gochnatieae of six genera, with a total of about 80 to 90 species. They are native to the Americas from the southern United States to Argentina, including the Caribbean, and Cuba in particular.
Asteroideae is a subfamily of the plant family Asteraceae. It contains about 70% of the species of the family. It consists of several tribes, including Astereae, Calenduleae, Eupatorieae, Gnaphalieae, Heliantheae, Senecioneae and Tageteae. Asteroideae contains plants found all over the world, many of which are shrubby. There are about 1,135 genera and 17,200 species within this subfamily; the largest genera by number of species are Helichrysum (500–600) and Artemisia (550).
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.
Baridinae is a subfamily of true weevils (Curculionidae). It was established by Carl Johan Schönherr in 1836. Some 4,300 species in 550 genera are placed here, most of which occur in the New World. A few are economically significant pests, while others are in turn used for biocontrol of invasive plant pests. This subfamily also contains a few endangered species.
Gochnatia is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, Asteraceae. It is named for botanist Frédéric Karl Gochnat. The genus contains mainly shrubs and subshrubs, with a few trees and herbs. All of the species are native to the American tropics. Two species native to the mountains of Southeast Asia and formerly included here are now separated as the genus Leucomeris in subfamily Wunderlichioideae.
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.
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).
Corymbium is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family comprising nine species. It is the only genus in the subfamily Corymbioideae and the tribe Corymbieae. The species have leaves with parallel veins, strongly reminiscent of monocots, in a rosette and compounded inflorescences may be compact or loosely composed racemes, panicles or corymbs. Remarkable for species in the daisy family, each flower head contains just one, bisexual, mauve, pink or white disc floret within a sheath consisting of just two large involucral bracts. The species are all endemic to the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa, where they are known as plampers.
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.
Famatinanthus is a genus in the family Asteraceae that was described in 2014 and has been assigned to its own tribe Famatinantheae and subfamily Famatinanthoideae. It contains only one known species, F. decussatus, a small shrub of ½—1¾ m high that is an endemic of the Andes of north-western Argentina, with small, entire, oppositely set leaves and flowerheads containing about ten cream-colored, ray and disk florets, with backward coiled lobes. It is locally known as sacansa. For more than 100 years, the species was known to science only from the type collection. It was described in 1885 and originally assigned to the genus Aphyllocladus.
