first validly published in the botanical literature (as Bignonieae) by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789 in his classic work, Genera Plantarum. The type genus for this family is Bignonia, which was validated by Linnaeus in Species Plantarum in 1753. The name originated with Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, who named it for his benefactor, Jean-Paul Bignon, in 1694, in his influential Eléments de botanique ou méthode pour connaître les plantes. Important groundwork for future study of the family was laid down from 1789 to 1837, mostly by Jussieu, Kunth, Bojer and G.Don (George Don (1798-1856) not George Don the elder (1764-1814). Bentham and Hooker surveyed the family in their Genera Plantarum in 1876. Karl Moritz Schumann wrote a monograph on Bignoniaceae in 1894 for Engler and Prantl's Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien. After Schumann's monograph, no taxonomic treatment of the entire family was published until 2004. As the number of known species gradually increased, a great deal of confusion developed over the delimitation of genera. New genera were frequently erected for species that did not clearly belong to any of the previously described genera. This resulted in a proliferation of monotypic genera. Gentry reduced the number of genera in 1973, 1976, and 1979. Nevertheless, the revision of 2004 described 104 genera, 38 of them monotypic. This problem was especially acute in the tribe Bignonieae. In that tribe, many species of uncertain affinity were assigned to a vaguely defined Arrabidaea, turning that genus into a dumping ground of about 100 species. Since 2004, molecular phylogenetic studies have shown a substantial revision of the genera is necessary. Much work toward this goal can be viewed online, but little of it has yet been published in scientific papers. A detailed taxonomic history of Bignoniaceae was published in 1980. A summary of this history was published in 1999. Classification In the APG IV system of classification for flowering plants, Bignoniaceae is one of the 24 families in the order Lamiales. (Lamiales has 25 families if Rehmanniaceae are accepted). Within the order, Bignoniaceae is in a group of eight families consisting of Thomandersiaceae, Pedaliaceae, Martyniaceae, Schlegeliaceae, Bignoniaceae, Verbenaceae, Acanthaceae, and Lentibulariaceae. This group is described as a polytomy, meaning no two of its members are known to be more closely related to each other than to any of the others. Statistical support for this group remains weak, indicating insufficient data have been applied, or the group is