Dichorisandrinae

{{Short description|Subtribe of flowering plants}}

{{automatic taxobox

| image = Dichorisandra thyrsiflora, RBGE 2009.jpg

| image_caption= Dichorisandra thyrsiflora

| display_parents = 2

| taxon = Dichorisandrinae

| authority = Faden & D.R.Hunt

}}

Dichorisandrinae is a subtribe within the tribe Tradescantieae of the flowering plant family Commelinaceae. It consists of 5 genera and around 51 species.

The subtribe represents a diverse assemblage native to tropical South America and a contiguous portion of Central America.{{cite journal |author=Robert B. Faden & D. R. Hunt |year=1991 |title=The classification of the Commelinaceae |journal=Taxon |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=19–31 |jstor=1222918 |doi=10.2307/1222918 }} Not only is this subtribe remarkable for the range of morphological and ecological variation within it, but it also includes species that represent novel exceptions to the terrestrial habit, longitudinally-dehiscent anthers, and/or exarillate seeds typical of the family. Exceptional taxa include Dichorisandra, characterized by the unusual combination of a vining habit, poricidal anthers, and arillate seeds. Cochliostema is atypical in having an epiphytic habit and flowers with spirally-coiled anthers concealed in petaloid extensions of the filament. Geogenanthus is distinguished by a particular 6-celled stomatal complex and basal axillary inflorescences. Plowmanianthus consists of prostrate herbs shallowly rooted in the leaf-litter layer of rainforest floors, and the flowers of most Plowmanianthus species are primarily cleistogamous.{{cite journal |author=C. R. Hardy & Robert B. Faden |year=2004 |title=Plowmanianthus, a new genus of Commelinaceae with five new species from tropical America |journal=Systematic Botany |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=316–333 |doi=10.1600/036364404774195511}}