Gentianaceae

The family Gentianaceae is a diverse lineage of over 1500 angiosperm species, including many tropical and temperate trees, shrubs, and herbs with a wide range of floral types and colours. This volume provides the first comprehensive review of the family, covering phylogeny, classification, biogeography, palynology, phytochemistry and morphology, and also presents the first classification of the entire family to be published for over 100 years, generated using modern molecular- and morphology-based phylogenetic data. The volume places the Gentianaceae in context with its relatives in the order Gentianales and subclass Asteridae; presents an updated, phylogenetic classification of tribes, subtribes, and genera; investigates the corroborative value of morphological features in phylogenetic diagnoses; and comprehensively summarizes palynology, seed morphology, and phytochemistry. Descriptions of each of the 87 gentian genera are provided, as are discussions on morphological evolution and biogeography for each major evolutionary lineage.

Author Biography

Lena Struwe is a Research Associate in The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics Studies at the Institute of Systematic Botany, New York Botanical Garden. Her main research interests are the evolution and biogeography of the Gentianaceae, and also the order Gentianales, specifically the families Loganiaceae and Gelsemiaceae. Victor A. Albert is Assistant Professor of Evolutionary Biology in the Department of Biological Sciences at The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and Assistant Curator of the University of Alabama Herbarium at the Alabama Museum of Natural History. His research is broadly concerned with plant evolutionary biology, spanning a wide range of studies from gentian systematics, island biogeography, to understanding the molecular developmental basis for morphological novelty.