A molecular phylogenetic approach to western North America endemic Artemisia and allies (Asteraceae): Untangling the sagebrushes (original) (raw)

2011, American Journal of Botany

The genus Artemisia L. is the largest of tribe Anthemideae Cass. (Asteraceae Martinov), comprising around 500 species (Vall è s and McArthur, 2001 ; Vall è s and Garnatje, 2005), many of them ecologically and economically relevant. Some of them are important medicinal plants such as Artemisia annua L., whose component artemisinin is successfully used against malaria (Van der Meersch, 2005); others are used as condiments, as tarragon (A. dracunculus L.) or to make alcoholic beverages such as absinth (A. absinthium L.). Artemisia species are widely distributed in temperate areas in the northern Hemisphere (Bremer, 1994) but very sparsely in the southern Hemisphere, with fewer than 10 species there. Four or fi ve subgenera are generally accepted: Artemisia , Absinthium (Mill.) Less., Dracunculus Besser, Seriphidium (Besser) Poljakov, and Tridentatae (Rydberg) McArthur; some treatments combine subgenera Artemisia and Absinthium in a single subgenus, Artemisia (Shultz, 2009). The classic subgeneric delimitations have been subject to rearrangement in the light of recent molecular studies, which in some cases do not support the traditional classifications and portray some of the classical subgenera as polyphyletic or paraphyletic (