Commelinoideae

Commelinoideae
Commelina maculata in Narsapur, Medak district, India.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
(unranked):	Commelinids
Order:	Commelinales
Family:	Commelinaceae
Subfamily:	Commelinoideae Faden & D.R. Hunt
Tribes
Tradescantieae Commelineae

Commelinoideae is a subfamily of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the dayflower family (Commelinaceae). The Commelinoideae is one of two subfamilies within the Commelinaceae and includes 39 genera (out of 41 in the family) and all but 12 of the family's several hundred known species. The subfamily is further broken down into two tribes, the Tradiscantieae, which includes 26 genera and about 300 species, and the Commelineae, which contains 13 genera and about 350 species.

The Commelinoideae is separated morphologically from the other subfamily, Cartonematoideae, in having glandular microhairs, arteries containing needle-like calcium oxalate crystals called raphide canals in between the veins of the leaves, and flowers that are virtually never both yellow and actinomorphic.^[1] Molecular phylogenetics also supports the separation of the two subfamilies. ^[2]

Phylogeny

The following is a phylogeny, or evolutionary tree, of most of the genera in Commelinoideae based on DNA sequences from the plastid gene rbcL^[2]

	Subfamily Commelinoideae Tribe Tradescantieae Tinantia Weldenia Thysanthemum Elasis Tradescantia + Gibasis Callisia + Tripogandra Amischotolype Coleotrype Cyanotis Belosynapsis Dichorisandra Siderasis Cochliostema Plowmanianthus Geogenanthus Palisota Spatholirion Tribe Commelineae Commelina Pollia Polyspatha Aneilema + Rhopalephora Floscopa Stanfieldiella Buforrestia Murdannia Anthericopsis

References

1. Faden, Robert B. (1998), "Commelinaceae", in Kubitzki, Klaus, The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, IV, Berlin: Springer, pp. 109–128
2. Evans, Timothy M.; Systsma, Kenneth J.; Faden, Robert, B.; Givnish, Thomas J. (2003), "Phylogenetic Relationships in the Commelinaceae: A Cladistic Analysis of rbcL Sequences and Morphology", Systematic Botany, 28 (2): 270–292, doi:10.1043/0363-6445-28.2.270

Bibliography

• Jean H. Burns, Robert B. Faden, and Scott J. Steppan. (2011) Phylogenetic Studies in the Commelinaceae Subfamily Commelinoideae Inferred from Nuclear Ribosomal and Chloroplast DNA Sequences. Systematic Botany 36(2): 268-276. doi:10.1600/036364411X569471

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