Kingdom Plantae Family Poaceae Scientific name Chloridoideae Rank Tribe | Order Poales Subfamily Chloridoideae Higher classification Grasses | |
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Lower classifications Bouteloua, Buchloe, Bouteloua curtipendula, Bouteloua gracilis, Tridens | ||
Chloridoideae is one of the largest subfamilies of grasses, with roughly 130 genera and 1,600 species, mainly found in arid tropical or subtropical grasslands. Within the PACMAD clade, their sister group are the Danthonioideae. The subfamily includes widespread weeds such as Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon) or goosegrass (Eleusine indica), but also millet species grown in some tropical regions, namely finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and teff (Eragrostis tef).
With the exception of some species in Ellisochloa, most of the subfamily's species use the C4 photosynthetic pathway. The first evolutionary transition from C3 to C4 photosynthesis in the grasses probably occurred in this subfamily, around 32 to 25 million years ago in the Oligocene.
Phylogeny
Relationships of tribes in the Chloridoideae according to a 2015 phylogenetic classification, also showing the Danthonioideae as sister group:
