Recent advances in the systematics of the tribe Boragineae (Boraginaceae). 2001.  Recent advances in the systematics of the tribe Boragineae (Boraginaceae).

Taxonomic problems in family Boraginaceae s.l. range from the level of order to that of species and below, mainly due to the still largely incomplete knowledge of many groups and to the difficult interpretation of shared characters as phylogenetically informative homologies or rather as simple analogies. Based on recent molecular phylogenetic analyses, there is evidence that Boraginaceae, as traditionally treated, is a paraphyletic group also including Hydrophyllaceae and Lennoaceae. To avoid paraphyly, it either has to include these two well-established families at subfamily rank or, alternatively, the traditional subfamilies Cordioideae, Ehretioideae, Heliotropioideae and Boraginoideae must be elevated to family rank. Such a second taxonomic option is preferrable, in order to have a monophyletic order Boraginales consisting of six natural families: Cordiaceae, Ehretiaceae, Heliotropiaceae, Hydrophyllaceae, Lennoaceae and Boraginaceae s.str. Position of Boraginales is within the Euasterid-I clade of the APG, and possibly sister to Solanales, Gentianales and Lamiales. Intended in a narrow sense, Boraginaceae consists of at least five tribes, Lithospermeae, Boragineae, Cynoglosseae, Eritrichieae and Echiochileae, plus two still ill-defined groups, Trigonotideae and Trichodesmeae. The spine of the family phylogeny as resulting from the few molecular studies published to date suggest that Boragineae, Lithospermeae and Echiochileae are monophyletic groups, while the genera of Cynoglosseae and Eritrichieae seem to form a broad paraphyletic complex in which distinction of the two tribes as established on a traditional morphological basis can not be clearly recognized. The focus of our research in the last years has been the systematics and phylogeny of tribes Boragineae and Lithospermeae. Taxonomic problems in these groups are historically at the genus level.