From Plant Press Vol. 12, no. 4 from 2009.
The
Compositae (Asteraceae) are the largest and most successful flowering plant
family in the world with ca. 1,700 genera and 25,000 species. They grow
everywhere but Antarctica, but prefer open areas and are common garden plants
(i.e., sunflowers, daisies, artichokes, thistles, lettuce). In Systematics, Evolution, and Biogeography of
Compositae, co-edited by Vicki A.
Funk, Alfonso Susanna, Tod
F. Stuessy and Randall J. Bayer, recent morphological and molecular data are
used to provide a complete treatment of the family. Overview chapters cover
topics such as chromosome numbers and chemistry, and chapters on every clade in
the family are included as well. Nearly every chapter has a color-coded
biogeography tree and color photos of plants and there is a summary chapter
with a ca. 900 taxon tree (metatree) for the whole family. Appendices include
an illustrated glossary and a combined literature cited (each chapter has a
literature cited as well).
Published
by the International Association for Plant Taxonomy, this is the first family
wide phylogenetic treatment for the Compositae. The book contains 44 chapters
and 1,000 pages (ca. 200 in color) contributed by over 80 authors. A pdf file
of the metatree can be found at www.compositae.org.
A video about the book is available on Youtube.
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