Commelinoideae

Commelinoideae
	Commelina maculata in Narsapur, Medak district, India.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Clade:	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 Tradescantieae, 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

Tribe Commelineae

	Commelina

	Pollia

	Polyspatha

	Aneilema + Rhopalephora

	Floscopa

	Stanfieldiella

Buforrestia

	Murdannia

	Anthericopsis

References

^ Faden, Robert B. (1998), "Commelinaceae", in Kubitzki, Klaus (ed.), The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, vol. IV, Berlin: Springer, pp. 109–128
^ ^a ^b 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{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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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[kubitski-1] Faden, Robert B. (1998), "Commelinaceae", in Kubitzki, Klaus (ed.), The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, vol. IV, Berlin: Springer, pp. 109–128

[evans03-2] 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{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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