Platycarpha | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Asterales |
Family: | Asteraceae |
Subfamily: | Vernonioideae |
Tribe: | Platycarpheae |
Genus: | Platycarpha Lessing |
Type species | |
Platycarpha glomerata[1] |
Platycarpha is a genus of South African plants within the family Asteraceae.[1][2]
Recent studies have suggested splitting Platycarpha into two genera, Platycarpha and Platycarphella. Further work remains to be done to resolve this.[3][4][5]
The name Platycarpha is derived from two Greek words, platys "broad" and karphos "a chip of straw or wood, a scale, a dry stalk".[6] The name was first used by Christian Friedrich Lessing in 1831.[7] The type species is Platycarpha glomerata.[8] This species had been named Cynara glomerata by Carl Peter Thunberg in 1800,[9] and was moved to Platycarpha by A.P. de Candolle in 1836 in Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.[10]
The systematic position of Platycarpha has long been regarded with uncertainty. Most authors have placed it in the tribe Arctotideae[4] until molecular phylogenetic studies showed it to be closer to Vernonieae.[11] In 2009, the new tribe Platycarpheae was established for Platycarpha and Platycarphella.[12]