Caprifoliaceae s.s & s.l.
Over the years the Adoxaceae, Caprifoliaceae, Dipsacaceae, Valerianaceae and Virburnaceae families have been moved around.
Now Adoxaceae (with Virburnaceae), with shrubby plants, is a separate family in all classifications.
There are 2 Caprifoliaceae families:
1. Caprifoliaceae s.s. is the strictly defined Honeysuckle family.
Dipsacaceae and Valerianaceae are separate families.
2. Caprifoliaceae s.l. is a loosely defined family with the above 3 families reduced to sub-families.
In this classification Dipsacaceae and Valerianaceae are synonyms of Caprifoliaceae s.l.
Caprifoliaceae s.l. has 33 genera (Kew) with around 825 species including Dipsacus, Lonicera, Scabiosa, Valeriana and Abelia.
Both classifications are still seen so care must be taken when looking at family descriptions.
I am using the strictly defined families.
J.F.
