CAPITULUM: The International Compositae Alliance Newsletter

Perityleae B.G.Baldwin (Asteroideae): A catalogue of natural history, taxonomy, and morphology of the rock daisy tribe

Isaac Lichter-Marck

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3575-6003

A. Michael Powell

Kelsey Wogan

Daniel Gause

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8062-3810

Juan Fernando Pío-León

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1926-110X

Arturo Castro-Castro

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2864-5180

Jon Rebman

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4150-7356

Sophia Winitsky

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3939-9296

Kaitlin Allerton

https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0424-3494

Cecilia Alexander

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5555-0972

Thomas R. Van Devender

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3700-2221

Ana Lilia Reina-Guerrero

Robert A. Villa

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4986-628X

Colin Frasch

https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7612-8156

Raúl Puente-Martínez

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5870-0312

Guillermo Molina-Padilla

Susan D. Carnahan

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7473-5415

Elaine Moisan

Sky Jacobs

Leopoldo Hurtado-Reveles

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1660-2535

Felipe Zapata

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9386-0573

Rosa A. Scherson

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3207-6395

Nicolás García

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9003-1510

Vanezza Morales-Fierro

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3723-8752

Lukas Mekis

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2458-195X

Pablo Carrillo-Reyes

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9278-0208

J. Eduardo Villalobos de la Vega

Ciara Casas

https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3889-6331

Trevor Van de Loon

https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4120-2519

Fabio A. Avila

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8225-2548

Oscar C. González-Martínez

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6580-0565

Amanda Konishi

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9658-8411

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53875/capitulum.04.2.02

Keywords: cliff plants, collaborative monography, Compositae, field work, Heliantheae alliance, nomenclator, taxonomy

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Abstract

Tribe Perityleae includes eight genera and 90 taxa of rock daisies distributed in arid to semi-arid environments in North

and South America, many of which grow on steep, vertical cliffs and bare, rocky outcrops in canyons and sky islands.

Due in part to their diversity, morphological complexity, and growth in difficult-to-access terrain, rock daisy taxonomy

has been in flux for over a century. Recent molecular studies and extensive fieldwork have helped to resolve much

uncertainty in this group, but the process of formalizing new insights into codified nomenclatural changes has only

begun. As a first step towards an updated monograph of the rock daisies, we present a comprehensive account of all

validly published taxonomic names applied to tribe Perityleae in the form of a nomenclator and annotated checklist, and

for each taxon we summarize recent discoveries from the field. In total, 273 names are accounted for here, including

81 accepted species, 10 varieties, 125 homotypic synonyms, 53 heterotypic synonyms, and 5 names that apply to taxa

in other tribes of Compositae. We also elevate two infraspecific taxa to species level (Perityle cuneata and Perityle

marginata), place five names in synonymy (Galinsogeopsis stevensii [a synonym of G. canescens], G. pennellii [a synonym

of G. hofmeisteria], G. scopulorum and G. pseudociliata [both synonyms of G. coronopifolia], and Perityle trichodonta [a

synonym of P. rosei], and we reinstate basionyms with nomenclatural priority in four cases (Galinsogeopsis microglossa,

G. microglossa var. saxosa, Laphamia toumeyi, and Villanova anemonifolia). Our review of recent discoveries from the field

uncovers ten cases where rock daisies were recently rediscovered by field botanists following many decades of being

“lost” and 16 cases where taxa have recently been photographed for the first time. Despite abundant efforts on the

part of field biologists to relocate populations of rock daisies, there are still at least ten “lost” rock daisy taxa for which

knowledge of current population persistence in the wild is unconfir med.