Tropicos

This page presents taxonomic portions of previously published work on particular genera with supplemental obsevations and addition of specimens, along with original observations on some "orphan"genera that have not been studied recently and have no current specialist. The information here is aimed at providing a synoptic overview of the Neotropical Rubiaceae, and some Paleotropical groups are also covered here. All the information here is integrated with the Tropicos database. The genera treated here are listed on the "Generic List" page (see menu at left).

Note: For each accepted species name in this project, clicking will lead to the Rubiaceae Project data page; to then see the standard Ttropicos Name page data directly from the project page, go to the upper right of the screen and under "Choose Project", click on "Tropicos".

This web site is under ongoing construction. Content that begins with two asterisks, " ** ", is not finalized. The "Generic List" page has options to see only accepted genera (the default setting), only synonymous genera, or all genera that have project pages.

In addiition to the genus treatments, detailed morphological and synonymy information is available here for the family Rubiaceae and for selected tribes. These tribes can be accessed on the Name Search screen but are not included in the Generic List. Currently information is available for these tribes: Chiococceae, Cinchoneae, Condamineeae, Coussareeae, Gaertnereae, Guettardeae, Hamelieae, Henriquezieae, Hillieae, Lasiantheae, Palicoureeae, Psychotrieae, Retiniphylleae, Rondeletieae, Schradereae, Strumpfieae.

Most of the information here is based on published work, with the main content for a group presented on the genus page. However, a few species groups have an updated treatment here that has not been published elsewhere. Most of these are groups of similar, apparently closely related species of Palicourea and Psychotria that do not belong to any infrageneric groups that have been treated in detail elsewhere.

Some common confusions in Rubiaceae names, as to authorship and place of publication in works by Kunth, Roemer & Schultes, Willdenow, A. Richard, Candolle, Baillon, and Kuntze are outlined here in the Nomenclature Notes on the menu on the left of this page.

The suggested format for citation of parts of this online reference is, to cite individual genus pages by their authorship and posting date, and to cite the date the web page was consulted because it is updated now and then. Here is an example of the suggested citation format for the web pages here for the genus Notopleura.

Taylor, C. M. 2025 [continuously updated]. Notopleura (Benth.) Bremek. In C. M. Taylor & collaborators, Rubiaceae Project. Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden. http://legacy.tropicos.org/Name/40029303?projectid=34. Consulted on <day month year>.

Many sincere thanks go to colleagues worldwide and floristic projects across the Neotropicos for generously sharing information for my work on Rubiaceae. Particular thanks go to the William Froelich Foundation, for funding for Rubiaceae data compilation; to Chris Davidson for significant encouragement and help with this project; and to Ms. Suzanne Hirth and Dr. Burgund Bassüner for help with data compilation and analysis for my work.

-- C.M. Taylor, MO 6 February 2025