The Cardueae are a tribe of flowering plants in the daisy family (Asteraceae) and the subfamily Carduoideae. Most of them are commonly known as thistles; four of the best known genera are Carduus, Cynara (containing the widely eaten artichoke and cardoni), Cirsium, and Onopordum.

They are annual, biennial, or perennial herbs. Many species are thorny on leaves, stems, or involucre, and some have laticifers or resin conduits. Almost 80 genera comprising 2500 species are assigned to this tribe, native of temperate regions of Europe and Asia (especially the Mediterranean region and Minor Asia), Australia and tropical Africa; only three genera contain species native to the Americas.

Taxonomy

The correct name for the tribe has been disputed. In 1806, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Augustin Pyramus de Candolle published the name Cynarocephalae. This is a descriptive name, referring to the bluish colour of the flower heads. Such descriptive names for tribes are not valid under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, which requires them to be based on a generic name. The name has been corrected by some authors to Cynareae, but this was not the name that was published in 1806. Christian Friedrich Lessing published Cynareae in 1830, but Henri Cassini had already published Cardueae in 1819, and as Lessing included Carduus in Cynareae, his name was superfluous.

Some authors have divided the plants traditionally held to be in this tribe into three tribes: Cynareae in the narrow sense, Carlineae, and Echinopeae. However, other authors have retained the traditional broader classification.

Subtribes and genera