Vickianthus, a new genus of the Vernonieae (Compositae) from Mexico

Abstract

The morphologically diverse and globally distributed tribe Vernonieae (Compositae) has had a long taxonomic history whereby the majority of its taxa ended up being put into its “core” genus, Vernonia Schreb. Recent phylogenetic studies using DNA sequence data are only now beginning to tease apart this complicated “evil tribe” and provide a better understanding of the underlying morphological relationships within. With strong support from a recent molecular phylogenetic study of the Vernonieae across its entire geographical range, ten Mexican species of Vernonia and Vernonanthura are examined in this paper and placed in a new genus, Vickianthus.