''Berkheya'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of flowering plants in the aster family,
Asteraceae
The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...
, and the subfamily
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 Cynareae.
Takhtajan, according to Reveal, includes 1 ...
, the
thistle
Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves ...
s. It is distributed in
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, especially in southern regions.
[Hind, N. (2006)]
568. ''Berkheya purpurea''.
''Curtis's Botanical Magazine'' 23(4), 289-96. Of about 75 species, 71 can be found in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
.
[Funk, V. A. and R. Chan. (2008)]
Phylogeny of the spiny African daisies (Compositae, tribe Arctotideae, subtribe Gorteriinae) based on ''trn''L-F, ''ndh''F, and ITS sequence data.
''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 48(1), 47-60.
Most species have yellow ray florets, a few have white, and ''B. purpurea'' has light purple or
mauve
Mauve (, ; , ) is a pale purple color named after the mallow flower (French: ''mauve''). The first use of the word ''mauve'' as a color was in 1796–98 according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', but its use seems to have been rare befo ...
florets.
[
''B. purpurea'' is cultivated as an ]ornamental plant
Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...
.[ Some ''Berkheya'' are known as ]weed
A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...
s.[Clark, M. M]
A comparison between the flower-head insect communities of South African ''Berkheya'' and European Cynareae.
In: ''Proceedings of the VIII International Symposium on Biological Control of Weeds''. (pp. 165-170). Istituto Sperimentale per la Vegetale, Ministero dell'Agricoltura e delle Foreste. 1990.
''B. coddii'' is a well-known hyperaccumulator A hyperaccumulator is a plant capable of growing in soil or water with very high concentrations of metals, absorbing these metals through their roots, and concentrating extremely high levels of metals in their tissues. The metals are concentrated a ...
. Concentration of Ni as the leaves of this species may reach 7.6% DW Ni.
The genus was named in honor of the Dutch scientist and artist Johannes le Francq van Berkhey.
''Berkheya'' are associated with a variety of weevil
Weevils are beetles belonging to the superfamily Curculionoidea, known for their elongated snouts. They are usually small, less than in length, and herbivorous. Approximately 97,000 species of weevils are known. They belong to several families, ...
s in the genus ''Larinus
''Larinus'' is a genus of true weevils, comprising about 180 species, mostly in the Palaearctic region.Hoffman, A. 1954. Faune de France. 59, Coléoptères Curculionidés. Part 2. P. Lechavalier, Paris.
Turkey appears to have a significant div ...
''. The tephritid fruit fly '' Urophora agromyzella'' is also found on the plants.[
]
Species
Species include:
* '' Berkheya acanthopoda''
* '' Berkheya angusta''
* '' Berkheya angustifolia''
* '' Berkheya annectens'' – thistle-thorn
* '' Berkheya armata''
* '' Berkheya barbata''
* '' Berkheya bergiana''
* '' Berkheya bipinnatifida''
* '' Berkheya caffra''
* '' Berkheya canescens''
* '' Berkheya cardopatifolia''
* '' Berkheya carduoides''
* '' Berkheya carlinifolia''
* '' Berkheya carlinoides''
* '' Berkheya carlinopsis''
* '' Berkheya chamaepeuce''
* '' Berkheya cirsiifolia''
* '' Berkheya coddii''
* '' Berkheya coriacea''
* '' Berkheya cruciata''
* '' Berkheya cuneata''
* '' Berkheya debilis''
* '' Berkheya decurrens''
* '' Berkheya densifolia''
* '' Berkheya discolor''
* '' Berkheya draco''
* '' Berkheya dregei''
* '' Berkheya echinacea''
* '' Berkheya eriobasis''
* '' Berkheya erysithales''
* '' Berkheya ferox''
* '' Berkheya francisci''
* '' Berkheya fruticosa''
* '' Berkheya glabrata'' – yellow thistle
* '' Berkheya griquana''
* '' Berkheya herbacea''
* '' Berkheya heterophylla''
* '' Berkheya insignis''
* '' Berkheya latifolia''
* '' Berkheya leucaugeta''
* '' Berkheya mackenii''
* '' Berkheya macrocephala''
* '' Berkheya maritima''
* ''Berkheya montana
''Berkheya'' is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae, and the subfamily Carduoideae, the thistles. It is distributed in tropical Africa, especially in southern regions.Hind, N. (2006)568. ''Berkheya purpurea''. ''Curtis's ...
''
* '' Berkheya multijuga''
* '' Berkheya nivea''
* '' Berkheya onobromoides''
* '' Berkheya onopordifolia''
* '' Berkheya pannosa''
* '' Berkheya pauciflora''
* '' Berkheya pinnatifida''
* '' Berkheya purpurea'' – purple berkheya
* '' Berkheya radula''
* '' Berkheya radyeri''
* '' Berkheya rhapontica''
* '' Berkheya rigida'' – Augusta thistle, Hamelin thistle
* '' Berkheya robusta''
* '' Berkheya rosulata''
* '' Berkheya seminivea''
* '' Berkheya setifera''
* '' Berkheya speciosa''
* '' Berkheya sphaerocephala''
* '' Berkheya spinosa''
* '' Berkheya spinosissima''
* '' Berkheya subulata''
* '' Berkheya tysonii''
* '' Berkheya umbellata''
* '' Berkheya viscosa''
* '' Berkheya zeyheri''
Gallery
File:Berkheya armata (2).jpg, '' Berkheya armata''
File:Berkheya cirsiifolia.jpg, '' Berkheya cirsiifolia''
File:Berkheya purpurea 03.jpg, '' Berkheya purpurea''
File:Berkheya radula01.jpg, '' Berkheya radula''
Phylogeny
Comparison of DNA has indicated that ''Berkheya'' in its current composition is paraphyletic because some of its species are more related to '' Cullumia'', '' Cuspidia'', ''Didelta
''Didelta'' is a genus of shrubs of up to 1 or 2 meter high, with two known species in the daisy family. Like in almost all Asteraceae, the individual flowers are 5-merous, small and clustered in typical heads, and are surrounded by an involucr ...
'' and '' Heterorhachis'' than all species currently recognised as ''Berkeya'' among each other.
References
Arctotideae
Asteraceae genera
Flora of Africa
Taxa named by Jakob Friedrich Ehrhart
{{Asteraceae-stub