Revision of the genus Barnadesia (Asteraceae: Barnadesioideae, Barnadesieae)

Barnadesia is a South American genus with 18 species of trees and shrubs, mainly distributed in the Andes. This work represents a modem revision, which comprises taxonomic and phylogenetic aspects. The taxonomic aspect includes a description and history of the genus, keys for identification of the genera of the subfamily Barnadesioideae and the species of Barnadesia, descriptions, an account of morphological and anatomical characters (spines, leaves, hairs, corollas, anthers, achenes, pappi, and pollen), synonyms, illustrations, and distribution maps for each species, as well as a list of doubtful and excluded taxa. Two new subgenera, subg. Bacasia (Ruiz & Pav.) Urtubey and Barnadesia, and a new combination, Barnadesia lehmannii Hieron. var. villosa (I. C. Chung) Urtubey, are proposed. The following new synonymies are established: Barnadesia media D. Don = B. arborea Kunth; B. wurdackii Ferreyra = B. arborea Kunth; B. caryophylla (Vell.) S. F. Blake var. macrospinosa (Loefgr.) T. C. Chung = B. caryophylla (Vell.) S. F. Blake; B. hutchisoniana Ferreyra = B. lehmannii Hieron. var. lehmannii; B. polyacantha Wedd. var. velutina I. C. Chung = B. polyacantha Wedd. The phylogenetic analysis of Barnadesia was proposed using morphological characters. Polarity of characters was based on outgroup comparison with the genus Fulcaldea. The genus Huarpea was included to test the monophyly of Barnadesia. Two monophyletic groups were resolved: (1) B. corymbosa and B. parviflora, and (2) B. lehmannii, B. reticulata, B. caryophylla, B. polyacantha, B. glomerata, B. odorata, B. macbridei, B. jelskii, B. aculeata, B. horrida, B. macrocephala, B. pycnophylla, B. spinosa, B. arborea, B. dbmbeyana, and B. blakeana.