Boraginoideae


Boraginoideae is a subfamily of the flowering plant family Boraginaceae s.s, with about 42 genera. That family is defined in a much broader sense in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system of classification for flowering plants. The APG has not specified any subfamilial structure within Boraginaceae s.l.

Taxonomy

Some taxonomists placed the genera Codon and Wellstedia in Boraginoideae. Others place one or both of these in separate, monogeneric subfamilies. Codon was long regarded as an odd member of Hydrophylloideae, but in 1998, a molecular phylogenetic study suggested that it is closer to Boraginoideae. Neither is included n more modern classifications.
Some authors proposed a revision of earlier APG systems, in which Boraginaceae had been included as an unplaced family within the lamiid clade of eudicots. In that system. Boraginaceae was defined broadly. Instead they proposed recognizing five to eight families in a separate order, the Boraginales. In that system Boraginaceae is treated in a narrow sense. Subsequently the order Boraginales was added to the 2016 revision to include Boraginaceae at the ordinal level, in which it was the sole family. The consensus was to continue the broad usage rather than split it into separate families, based on its monophyletic composition. The subfamilial structure applies solely to Boraginaceae s.s., which includes around 1,600 to 1,700 species divided into some 90 genera.

Subdivision

Comparisons of DNA sequences by cladistic methods suggested the division of Boraginoideae into four tribes: Echiochileae, Boragineae, Lithospermeae, and Cynoglosseae. This was subsequently resolved into only two tribes, Boragineae and Lithospermeae. Boragineae was then further subdivided into two subtribes, Boragininae and Moritziinae.

Genera

Genera and approximate number of species in the system of Chacon et al :
Anchusa, Anchusella, Borago, Brunnera, Cynoglottis, Gastrocotyle, Hormuzakia, Lycopsis, Melanortocarya, Nonea, Pentaglottis, Phyllocara, Pulmonaria, Symphytum, Trachystemon
Moritzia, Thaumatocaryon
Aegonychon, Alkanna, Ancistrocarya, Arnebia, Buglossoides, Cerinthe, Cystostemon, Echiostachys, Echium, Glandora, Halacsya, Huynhia, Lithodora, Lithospermum, Lobostemon, Maharanga, Mairetis, Moltkia, Moltkiopsis, Neatostema, Onosma, Paramoltkia, Podonosma, Pontechium, Stenosolenium
The following list of genera consists of Codon plus the genera listed for Boraginoideae at the Germplasm Resources Information Network