Lobelioideae [SEP] parent taxon
Lobelioideae
Lobelioideae is a subfamily of the plant family Campanulaceae. It contains 32 genera, totalling about 1200 species. Some of the larger genera are "Lobelia", "Siphocampylus", "Centropogon", "Burmeistera" and "Cyanea".
They are perennials, sometimes annuals, ranging in form from herbs to small trees. Most species are tropical in distribution, but in total this subfamily occurs almost worldwide, being absent only from Arctic regions, central Asia and the Near East.
This subfamily was formerly
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of