Providing tools for the reassessment of Eupatorieae (Asteraceae): Comparative and statistical analysis of reproductive characters in South American taxa

Morphometric studies suggest taxonomic changes in a species complex in Chromolaena (Asteraceae, Eupatorieae, Praxelinae)

“…These synonymies were previously refuted by Christ & Ritter (2019) based on classic taxonomy and are now reinforced with statistical support. Lastly, our results add up to studies like Grossi & Katinas (2013), Viera Barreto et al (2018), Rodríguez-Cravero et al (2019 and Grossi et al (2020) in the reinforcement of the perception that a morphological interpretation of species and genera within Eupatorieae is challenging and that further studies should be conducted on this topic to elucidate the significance of certain traits and their overall usefulness in the taxonomy and systematics of the tribe itself.…”

“…folded or not). Floral "microcharacters" (as labeled by King & Robinson 1987) relative to corollas, stamens and styles were also not evaluated in our study, but according to Grossi et al (2020), these traits could prove informative at least at the generic level, possibly also at specific level, especially in genera known to possess high interspecific variations on these traits, such as Chromolaena. Thereby, the evaluation of these floral traits could also be useful in future studies, especially if confronted with other lines of evidence.…”

Praxelis clematidea (Asteraceae, Eupatorieae, Praxelinae) in Uruguay: first record of the genus and the species

“…A detailed analysis of the species was carried out considering macro and micromorphological characters, especially those previously used for delimiting genera of Praxelinae and species of Praxelis: leaf, involucre, phyllary, cypsela, pappus, and trichomes (King & Robinson, 1987;Grossi et al, 2020). Leaves and capitula were rehydrated, treated with a clearing process and stained with 2% safranin (Zarlavsky, 2014).…”

“…The tribe Eupatorieae (Asteraceae) includes almost 190 genera and 2200-2500 species with a predominantly Neotropical distribution. Species richness is particularly high in Brazil, tropical Andes and Mexico (King & Robinson, 1987;Hind & Robinson, 2007;Panero & Crozier, 2016;Rivera et al, 2016a;Roque et al, 2017;Gonzáles et al, 2018, Grossi et al, 2020. According to the most recent phylogeny (Rivera et al, 2016b) King & H.…”

“…It is defined by its pappus with numerous scabrid bristles, deciduous phyllaries, capitula with conical receptacles and asymmetrical carpopodium. These structures have been recognized as important evolutionary characters in Eupatorieae (Robinson et al, 2009;Grossi et al, 2020).…”