Dombeyoideae

Dombeyoideae is a widely distributed subfamily of the Malvaceae, as proposed by the APG. Most of the plants placed here were once assembled with more or less related genera in the paraphyletic Sterculiaceae; a lesser number were placed in the Tiliaceae which were also not monophyletic.

The Dombeyoideae were originally described by Carl Beilschmied in 1833. In the present delimitation, they contain about 14 genera with about 380 species, some 60% of which are in Dombeya (one of the most speciose genera of Malvaceae). They grow in the Old World tropics, especially Madagascar and the Mascarenes where about two-thirds of the species occur. In the Mascarenes, they are among the most diverse angiosperm groups, analogous to such (unrelated) plants as the aeoniums on the Canary Islands or the silversword alliance of the Hawaiian Islands.