Genus of flowering plants
Afrocarduus is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family, Asteraceae. It includes ten species of thistles native to the mountains of tropical Africa, ranging from Nigeria to Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.[1]
All the species in the genus are native to Afromontane or Afroalpine regions of Africa, ranging from 1600 and 4600 meters elevation. Some are restricted to a single mountain or mountain range, while others are native to two or more ranges, some widespread.[2]
The species now placed in genus Afrocarduus were previously placed in genus Carduus as subgenus Afrocarduus. The sub-Saharan African species have morphological and karyological features of genera Carduus and Cirsium. A phylogenetic study by Moreyra et al. concluded that these African species formed a clade distinct from Carduus and Cirsium, and sister to the newly described genus Afrocirsium.[2]
Species
Ten species are accepted.[1][2]
- Afrocarduus afromontanus (R.E.Fr.) N.Garcia, Moreyra & Susanna – Kenya (Mount Kenya and Aberdare Range) and Uganda
- Afrocarduus keniensis (R.E.Fr.) N.Garcia, Moreyra & Susanna – Kenya (Mount Elgon and Mount Kenya), Tanzania (Kilimanjaro), and Uganda
- Afrocarduus kikuyorum (R.E.Fr.) N.Garcia, Moreyra & Susanna – Albertine Rift mountains of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, western Uganda, and Rwanda; Southern Highlands and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania; Mount Nyiru in Kenya
- Afrocarduus leptacanthus (Fresen.) N.Garcia, Moreyra & Susanna – Ethiopia; Albertine Rift of Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda; Southern Highlands in Tanzania; Mau Escarpment in Kenya
- Afrocarduus macracanthus (Kazmi) N.Garcia, Moreyra & Susanna – Ethiopian Highlands in Ethiopia
- Afrocarduus millefolius (R.E.Fr.) N.Garcia, Moreyra & Susanna – Mount Kenya in Kenya
- Afrocarduus nyassanus (S.Moore) N.Garcia, Moreyra & Susanna – Nigeria and Cameroon to Ethiopia and Zimbabwe
- Afrocarduus ruwenzoriensis (S.Moore) N.Garcia, Moreyra & Susanna – Ruwenzori Mountains of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda
- Afrocarduus schimperi (Sch.Bip.) N.Garcia, Moreyra & Susanna – Ethiopia and South Sudan to Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Afrocarduus silvarum (R.E.Fr.) N.Garcia, Moreyra & Susanna – Kenya
References
- ^ a b c Afrocarduus (Kazmi) N.Garcia, Moreyra & Susanna. Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
- ^ a b c d e Moreyra, Lucía D., Núria Garcia-Jacas, Cristina Roquet, Jennifer R. Ackerfield, Turan Arabacı, Carme Blanco-Gavaldà, Christian Brochmann, Juan Antonio Calleja, Tuncay Dirmenci, Kazumi Fujikawa, and et al. 2023. African Mountain Thistles: Three New Genera in the Carduus-Cirsium Group. Plants 12, no. 17: 3083. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12173083
