Revision of Micrairoideae from Mon, 2014-03-24 23:40

Micrairoideae.-- Although the first overall phylogeny of the grass family based on molecular data (GPWG 2001) included the genera Micrariaand Eriachne, it had these genera positioned in different places in the PACCAD clade as incertae sedis, without a suggestion of a relationship. Also the GPWG classification placed the tribe Isachneae within the subfamily Panicoideae, without the inclusion of a member of this tribe in the analysis. However when further work based on molecular data was done with the inclusion of a species of Isachne (Duvall et al. 2007; Sanchez-Ken & Clark 2007) results show that the three genera Micraria, Eriachne and Isachne (as represented by a species each of Micraira and Isachneand one (Sanchez-Ken & Clark, 2007) or two species (Duval et al 2007) of Eriachne) form a separate clade of their own. The integrity of this clade was maintained with the inclusion of three species of Eriachne and two species of Micraira (Sanchez-Ken et al. 2007), with the provision of an emended formal subfamily description, although the genera Eriachne, Isachne and Micraira had been grouped together as far back as Bentham (1881) and the genus Micraira had also been placed in its own subfamily Micraroideae (Pilger 1956). As presently constituted (Sanchez-Ken et al, 2007) the subfamily consists of three tribes Micraireae (one genus Micraira F.Muell. with 13 species), Eriachneae (with two genera Eriachne R.Br. (50 species) and Pheidochloa S.T.Blake (2 species)) and Isachneae (with five genera Coelachne R.Br. (12 species),Heteranthoecia Stapf (one species), Isachne (105 species), Limnopoa C.E.Hubb. (one species) and Sphaerocaryum Hook. ex Nees f. (one species)). Omitted from the list in Sanchez-Ken et al. (2007) are the genera Cyrtococcum Stapf (14 species) and Hubbardia Bor (one species), included in the Isachneae by some authors (Watson & Dallwitz, 1992 and Mallett 2005). The most recent opinion has the Habbardieae (with sole genus Hubbaria) back in the Micrairoideae (Morrone et al 2012).  

Er Eriachneae   Is  Isachneae   Mi Micrairoideae   Hu Hubbardieae

Is Coelachne 
Is Cyrtococcum 
Er Eriachne 
Is Heteranthoecia

Hu Hubbardia
Is Isachne 
Is Limnopoa 
Mi Micraira 
Er Pheidochloa 
Is Sphaerocaryum

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith