Plant Tragopogon spp.
Taxonomic position
― Earlier classification An Old World genus of 150 species. Linnaeus described 8 species of Tragopogon, taking as his principal characters the morphology of the leaves and the involucral bract. Artemczhyk split all Ukrainian species of Tragopogon into 3 groups, Majores, Orientalis and Dasyrhynchiformes, and recognized these groups as separate series, but gave descriptions for only the Ukrainian members of these series. The brief paper of Artemczhyk (1948) is also the first evolutionary treatment of Tragopogon.
― Present classification Lactuceae, Cichorioideae, Scorzonerinae. The monophyly of the genus was strongly supported in a recent phylogenetic analysis of Scorzonerinae based on internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence data
― Close alliance plants/Origin taxa Tragopogon majus Jacq., T. orientalis L., and T. dasyrhynchus Artemcz. to be ancestral to all of the European species of the genus.
Infraspecific classification De Candolle (1838) split Tragopogon into 2 large groups that were not formally named. In one group he placed all species possessing peduncles thickened below the flowering capitula. In the second group the peduncles are not thickened below the capitula. Later, Boissier (1875) split Tragopogon into 2 large groups of unspecified rank based on flower color: (1) “species with yellow flowers” (Flaviflora group) and (2) “species with purplish flowers” (Rubriflora group). Following these initial treatments, other early investigators of Tragopogon described a large number of new species but did not provide any system of for the genus.
Groups According to Kuthatheladze (1957), Tragopogon is typically a Mediterranean genus; the oldest section in Tragopogon is Brevirostres, and the youngest is Profundisulcati. In the flora of the USSR, Borisova (1964) proposed a new system of for Tragopogon, based on the analysis of 79 species. Tzvelev (1985) proposed a taxonomic treatment of Tragopogon from the European portion of Russia based on 23 species.
Status Relationships within Tragopogon are poorly understood. Many species of Tragopogon have not been placed in a section; most of these are narrow endemics that have been recognized and named, but not treated taxonomically. Recent studies have revealed a proclivity for cryptic species, hence this number could be an underestimate.
References Mavrodiev et al., 2005; Guardia and Blanca et al., 1992
Plant Cichorium intybus
Taxonomic position
― Earlier classification Two species have been distinguished since Linnaeus 1753. Bremer (1994) did not assign Cichorium to a sub-tribe. However, he suggested Cichorium to be closely related to either Crepidinae or Stephanomeriinae, or considered the genus to be an early divergent branch in the Lactuceae phylogeny.
― Present classification Lactuceae, Asteraceae Cichorium is closely related to Lactuca, which agrees with Vermeulen et al. (1994).
― Close alliance plants/Origin taxa C. pumilum have been suggested as the closest wild relative of C. endive, the wild form of C. intybus wild chicory.
Infraspecific classification A new and reliable of C. intybus is urgently necessary and needed.
Groups Two widely cultivated species: C. endivia (endive and curly endive) and C. intybus (witloof, red and root chicory.
Status Explicit phylogenetic analysis of Cichorium has not been performed to date.
References Hammer et al., 2013; Kiers et al., 1999
Plant Allium sativum
Taxonomic position
― Earlier classification Liliaceae (Melchior 1964) Amarylliadaceae (based on inflorescence structure).
― Present classification Alliaceae (Molecular data based)
― Close alliance plants/Origin taxa A.longicuspis, A.tuncelianum
Infraspecific classification Many selections in informal group.
Groups Longicuspis group, Subtropical and Pekinense subgroup, Savitum group, Ophioscorodon group
Status
References Fritsch and Friesen, 2002
Plant Zingiber officinale
Taxonomic position
― Earlier classification William Roscoe (1753–1831) gave the plant the name Zingiber officinale in an 1807 publication Genetic diversity analysis of Zingiber officinale cultivars using RAPD/AFLP
― Present classification Zingiberaceae
― Close alliance plants/Origin taxa Primitive-type gingers such as ‘Sabarimala’ (Acc. No. 246), ‘Kozhikkalan’ (Acc. No. 537), ‘Ellakallan’ (Acc. No. 463), etc. are grouped in the first cluster and show close similarity to landraces, Acc. No. 27, Acc. No. 20 and Acc. No. 295 as well as the improved varieties, ‘Varada’ (Acc. No. 64), ‘Mahima’ (Acc. No. 117), and ‘Rejatha’ (Acc. No. 35), indicating that the primitive type may be the progenitor of the present-day ginger varieties.
Infraspecific classification The ginger family is a tropical group especially abundant in Indo-Malaysia, consisting of >1,200 plant species in 53 genera.
Groups The genus Zingiber includes ~85 species of aromatic herbs from East Asia and tropical Australia.
Status Ginger is a very poorly studied crop and its molecular information is limited. There are no studies on the comparative molecular profiling of putative wild type vis-à-vis the improved varieties and exotic introductions.
References Ashraf et al., 2014; Ghosh et al., 2011; Kizhakkayil and Sasikumar, 2010; Prem et al., 2008
Plant Allium cepa
Taxonomic position
― Earlier classification Liliaceae (Melchior 1964) Amarylliadaceae (based on inflorescence structure)
― Present classification Alliaceae (Molecular data based)
― Close alliance plants/Origin taxa A. cepa and A. oschaninii as close alliance.
Infraspecific classification 3 formal subspecies, 8 formal species and 17 cultivar groups.
Groups Common onion group, Aggregratum group, Ever ready onion group
Status
References Fritsch and Friesen, 2002
Plant Amorphophallus galbra
Taxonomic position
― Earlier classification Opinion lies to put the genus under the Aroideae subfamily; Amorphophallus was first placed in the tribe Thomsoniae, consisted of two closely related genera, Amorphophallus and Pseudodracontium