Carduoideae

Carduoideae is the thistle subfamily of the Asteraceae, or sunflower family, of flowering plants. It comprises a number of tribes in various circumscriptions of the family, in addition to the Cardueae. Takhtajan, according to Reveal, includes 11 tribes in addition to the Cardueae: the Arctotideae, the Barnadesieae, the Carlineae, the Cichorieae, the Echinopseae, the Eremothamneae, the Gundelieae, the Liabeae, the Mutisieae, and the Vernonieae. Of these 12, Thorne agrees with seven in his eight-tribe taxonomy of the Carduoideae, placing the tribes Cardueae (Cynareae), plus Arctotideae, Cichorieae, Eremothamneae, Liabeae, Mutisieae, and Vernonieaes in the subfamily, plus the Tarchonantheae. The Panero and Funk classification of 2002 (a molecular phylogenetic classification based upon chloroplast genes) places just three tribes in the subfamily: the Cardueae, plus the Dicomeae (created by Panero and Funk's paper, consisting of Dicoma, Erythrocephalum, Gladiopappus, Macledium, Cloisel......read more on Wikipedia.