78-81 The "Scrophulariaceae" families
Notes: In a paper with the slightly provocative title "Disintegration of the Scrophulariaceae", Olmstead et al. (2001) summarized the molecular and cladistic evidence for the unnaturalness of this family in its traditional circumscription. Their data support that the genera of traditional Scrophulariaceae belong to at least six monophyletic groups (families):
* Scrophulariaceae s. str. Including Limosella, a few non-arctic genera of 'old' Scrophulariaceae (e.g., Scrophularia and Verbascum), and other non-arctic families previously recognized as apart.
* Veronicaceae (priority name Plantaginaceae). Including, e.g., three arctic genera from the traditional Scrophulariaceae and also Callitrichaceae, Hippuridaceae, and Plantaginaceae.
* Orobanchaceae. Including, besides Boschniakia, i.e., the large Rhinanthoideae group with six arctic genera from the traditional Scrophulariaceae.
* Calceolariaceae. South American Calceolaria.
* Stilbaceae. Non-arctic, extended with one genus from old Scrophulariaceae.
* Phrymaceae. The genus Mimulus from the traditional Scrophulariaceae did not fit any of the categories above and was equally close to Lamiaceae, Paulowniaceae, and Orobanchaceae. It was later assigned to Phrymaceae (Beardsley and Olmstead 2002).
There are now robust data behind the proposed splits (see Stevens 2001 onwards) and we apply them for the Checklist.