Berkheya is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. It is distributed in tropical Africa, especially in southern regions.[2] Of about 75 species, 71 can be found in South Africa.[3]

Berkheya
Berkheya sp.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Subfamily: Vernonioideae
Tribe: Arctotideae
Subtribe: Gorteriinae
Genus: Berkheya
Ehrh.
Synonyms[1]
  • Agriphyllum Juss.
  • Apuleja Gaertn.
  • Arelina Neck.
  • Crocodilodes Adans.
  • Evopis Cass.
  • Rohria Vahl
  • Stephanocoma Less.
  • Stobaea Thunb.

Most species have yellow ray florets, a few have white, and B. purpurea has light purple or mauve florets.[2]

Berkheya purpurea is cultivated as an ornamental plant.[2] Some Berkheya are known as weeds.[4]

Berkheya coddii is a well-known hyperaccumulator. 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.[5]

Berkheya are associated with a variety of weevils in the genus Larinus. The tephritid fruit fly Urophora agromyzella is also found on the plants.[4]

Species

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Species include:[6][7]

Phylogeny

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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 and Heterorhachis than all species currently recognised as Berkeya among each other.[8]

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References

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  1. ^ "Berkheya". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Hind, N. (2006). 568. Berkheya purpurea. Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Curtis's Botanical Magazine 23(4), 289-96.
  3. ^ Funk, V. A. and R. Chan. (2008). Phylogeny of the spiny African daisies (Compositae, tribe Arctotideae, subtribe Gorteriinae) based on trnL-F, ndhF, and ITS sequence data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 48(1), 47-60.
  4. ^ a b 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.
  5. ^ Quattrocchi, Umberto (2017). CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: Common Names, Scientific Names, Eponyms, Synonyms, and Etymology. Routledge.
  6. ^ Berkheya. The Plant List.
  7. ^ Species listing: Berkheya. Red List of South African Plants. South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).
  8. ^ Phaliso, Ntombifikile; McKenzie, Robert James; Netnou-Nkoana, Noluthando C.; Karis, Per Ola; Barker, Nigel P. (2016). "Reassessing taxonomic relationships in the Berkheya clade (Asteraceae, Arctotideae-Gorteriinae): The utility of Achene morphology". Phytotaxa. 246 (1): 1–22. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.246.1.1. hdl:2263/56371.