As currently delimited, the mustard family comprises 3977 species classified in 351 genera (original data). The family-wide evolutionary framework currently consists of 52 tribes. Eleven genera have not yet been assigned to one of these tribes, in most cases because plant material suitable for molecular systematic approaches is not available.

The mustard family belongs to the order Brassicales (core eudicots, Rosids) with three families grouped to “core Brassicales” (e.g., Beilstein et al., 2010; Edger et al., 2018): Brassicaceae, Cleomaceae, Capparaceae (approximately 4475 species in total) and additional 14 plant families with much lower total species number (245 species in total; Stevens, 2001).

Systematics, taxonomy and evolution history of the Brassicaceae have long been controversial because the generic boundaries are often poorly delimited and attempts to group species diversity at higher order and combining genera into monophyletic groups (present-day concept of tribes) resulted in various artificial concepts. These difficulties resulted in a lack of agreement on the number and boundaries of tribes and genera and gave rise to several contradicting classification systems which have been proposed during the past two centuries (for review, refer to Warwick et al., 2010). As an important consequence of this past taxonomic history there is a major lack in comprehensive and easily accessible information on tribal and generic placement, which we aim to solve with BrassiBase.

The starting point was the enhanced (state of 2009) version of the species checklist by Warwick et al. (2006). The structure was generally not changed and included for each name: the status (accepted or not); a reference to relevant accepted name (for synonyms); author(s) [abbreviated and given in full] of basionym, actual combination, and, if differs from the latter, of respective publication; standard nomenclatural reference; basionym. The two characteristics provided in addition are the tribal affiliation and replaced synonym (added to the basionym field which was modified to the “basionym or replaced synonym” in order to cross-reference homotypic names).

The most important criteria for acceptance of a certain name are:

1. Monophyly of relevant genus
2. Compliance with the latest monographic treatment or other kind of taxonomic revision.

• Beilstein MA, Nagalingum N, Clements MD, Manchester SR, Mathews S. 2010. Dated molecular phylogenies indicate a Miocene origin for Arabidopsis thaliana. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 107(43): 18724–18728. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0909766107
• Edger PP, Hall J, Harkess A, Tang M, Coombs J, Mohammadin S, Schranz ME, Xiong Z, Leebens-Mack J, Meyers BC, Systma KJ, Koch MA, Al-Shehbaz IA, Pires JC. 2018. Brassicales phylogeny inferred from 72 plastid genes: A reanalysis of the phylogenetic localization of two paleopolyploid events and origin of novel chemical defenses. Am. J. Bot. 105(3):463–469. DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.1040
• Stevens PF. 2001 (and onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 12. July 2012 (and updates).
• Warwick SI, Francis A, Al-Shehbaz IA. 2006. Brassicaceae: Species checklist and database on CD-Rom. Plant Syst. Evol. 259(2–4): 249–258. DOI: 10.1007/s00606-006-0422-0
• Warwick SI, Mummenhoff K., Sauder CA, Koch MA, Al-Shehbaz IA. 2010. Closing the gaps: Phylogenetic relationships in the Brassicaceae based on DNA sequence data of nuclear ribosomal ITS region. Plant Syst. Evol. 285(3–4): 209–232. DOI: 10.1007/s00606-010-0271-8
• Warwick SI, Sauder CA, Al-Shehbaz IA, Jacquemoud F (2007) Phylogenetic relationships in the tribes Anchonieae, Chorisporeae, Euclidieae, and Hesperideae (Brassicaceae) based on nuclear ribosomal ITS DNA sequences. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden [Ann Missouri Bot Gard] 94, 56–78, doi 10.3417/0026-6493