Aegialitis
Several authors have discovered evidence for three distinct southern migrations of this mostly Northern Hemisphere family, the first of which remained isolated and evolved into the existing members of this genus.This hypothesized migration and evolutionary history explains the more primitive breeding system characteristics and morphology in this genus in relation to the rest of the family.[1] The genus Aegialitis was described by Robert Brown in his 1810 work Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen when he described the single species A. annulata.The Plumbaginaceae has historically been divided into either two subfamilies or two tribes and each approach has offered a different perspective of the proper taxonomic relationship in the family.Through cladistic analysis using both genetic and morphological characteristics, studies have concluded that Aegialitis is the sister taxon to the rest of its subfamily (Staticoideae) and thus has been assigned to the monotypic tribe Aegialitideae, which is sister to the tribe Staticeae (including the genera Acantholimon, Armeria, Goniolimon, Limoniastrum, and Limonium).