Genus Acrisione in Tribe Senecioneae
In botanical taxonomy, a genus (plural genera) is a rank used to group closely related species within a family. In the hierarchy, genus sits below family and above species.
Genera are defined by shared morphological, anatomical, and genetic characteristics (for example, features of flowers, fruits, seeds, or leaves) that indicate a close evolutionary relationship among the species they contain.
Each genus can include one or more species. Examples include Rosa (roses) and Solanum (nightshades, including tomato and eggplant).
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Genus Description
Suggest a correction!Acrisione (B.Nord.) is a small genus in the family Asteraceae, tribe Senecioneae, with about eight species centered in central and southern Chile and a small incursion into adjacent Argentina. The type species was designated by Nordenstam (1972) in the original description. Plants are erect subshrubs or perennial herbs with opposite or alternate, simple leaves that are often estipitate or shortly petiolate; indumentum varies from glabrous to tomentose. Capitula are pedunculate, solitary or arranged in cymes, heterogamous or rarely homogamous; phyllaries are uniseriate or almost so; ray florets are usually present, narrowly ligulate, and fertile; disc florets are perfect and yellow; style branches are truncate with penicillate tips; the pappus consists of numerous fine hairs, and achenes are small, compressed, and glabrous or sparsely pubescent (Nordenstam, 1972).
Species richness and range are concentrated in the Chilean Andes and adjacent lowlands, from the Mediterranean matorral to subalpine zones, with some populations in Nothofagus forest edges and rocky slopes. Centers of diversity occur in the central and southern Andes of Chile, with local endemism at regional scales. Elevational breadth is considerable, from lowland coastal ranges to high-elevation alpine habitats.
Pollination is predominantly by generalist insects, and dispersal is wind-assisted via the pappus, characteristic of many Senecioneae. The base chromosome number has been reported as x=10 in the tribe (Solbrig, 1963). Vegetative reproduction is occasional in some perennial taxa, though documentation remains scattered.
Taxonomically, Nordenstam (1972) placed Acrisione near the subtribe Senecioninae (S. Am. Senecioneae) and emphasized morphological similarity to small shrubby senecios, a view reflected in later treatments (cabrera, 1971; Reyes et al., 2017). Contemporary phylogenies based on ITS and ETS have consistently supported the inclusion of Acrisione within Senecioneae, though species-level relationships are still unsettled and delimitation varies among treatments (Nordenstam, 2007; Pelser et al., 2010; Reyes et al., 2017). No major subgeneric grouping is widely adopted; most references treat Acrisione as monotypic with multiple segregate species or vice versa, and circumscription remains fluid across sources (POWO, 2024; WFO, 2024).
Acrisione is not widely cultivated but some species are collected by specialty alpine and rock gardeners for tidy habit and capitula; economic use otherwise remains minor.
Conservation status is unevenly documented, and many species remain under-surveyed; targeted floristic work and improved phylogenetic resolution are needed (POWO, 2024).