Aethionema W.T. Aiton, Hort. Kew.

AL-Shehbaz, Ihsan A. & Barriera, Gabrielle, 2019, Typification of Edmond Boissier’s Cruciferae (Brassicaceae) names enumerated in Flora Orientalis, Boissiera 72, pp. 1-193 : 141-142

Aethionema W.T. Aiton, Hort. Kew. ed. 2, 4: 80. 1812.

= Crenularia Boiss. in Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot. ser. 2, 16: 380. 1841.

= Campyloptera Boiss. in Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot. ser. 2, 16: 381. 1841.

= Moriera Boiss. in Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot. ser. 2, 16: 380. 1841.

Tribe: Aethionemeae Al-Shehbaz et al.

Notes. – Aethionema includes 56 species centered primarily in Turkey, with fewer species in Iran and the Balkan Peninsula, and the range of some reach Morocco and Spain and that of another species into Pakistan.

Based strictly on morphology, YILDRIMILI & KILIÇ (2016) divided Aethionema into nine subgenera, four sections, two subsections, and three new series, but such division does not seem to be practical, and it is incompatible with the subsequently published and most recent molecular phylogenetic study on the genus ( MOHAMMADIN et al., 2017). In addition to their over splitting the genus, they described 11 new species and recognized only 51 species in the entire genus. The genus is much in need of a thorough monograph that critically evaluates morphology in light of molecular, genomic, and cytological data.

BOISSIER (1841b) described four smaller genera allied to Aethionema , of which he maintained in Flora Orientalis both Crenularia and Moriera as distinct and reduced Campyloptera and Iberidella to synonymy of Aethionema . However, almost all species that he described originally in Iberidella are currently assigned to Noccaea .

All Brassicaceae -wide molecular phylogenetic studies have consistently showed that Aethionema is sister to the rest of the family, and the interested reader should consult MOHAMMADIN et al. (2017). Therefore, the genus occupies a significant position for understanding trait evolution and other studies on the rest of the family.