The Apiales are an order of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s. The

families Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideal ...

are those recognized in the APG III system. This is typical of the newer classifications, though there is some slight variation and in particular, the Torriceliaceae may also be divided. Under this definition, well-known members include carrots,

celery Celery (''Apium graveolens'') is a marshland plant in the family Apiaceae that has been cultivated as a vegetable since antiquity. Celery has a long fibrous stalk tapering into leaves. Depending on location and cultivar, either its stalks, ...

, parsley, and ''

Hedera helix ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and ...

'' (English ivy). The order Apiales is placed within the

asterid In the APG IV system (2016) for the classification of flowering plants, the name asterids denotes a clade (a monophyletic group). Asterids is the largest group of flowering plants, with more than 80,000 species, about a third of the total flo ...

group of

eudicots The eudicots, Eudicotidae, or eudicotyledons are a clade of flowering plants mainly characterized by having two seed leaves upon germination. The term derives from Dicotyledons. Traditionally they were called tricolpates or non-magnoliid dicots ...

as circumscribed by the APG III system. Within the asterids, Apiales belongs to an unranked group called the

campanulids In the APG IV system (2016) for the classification of flowering plants, the name asterids denotes a clade (a monophyletic group). Asterids is the largest group of flowering plants, with more than 80,000 species, about a third of the total flo ...

, and within the campanulids, it belongs to a clade known in phylogenetic nomenclature as Apiidae. In 2010, a

subclade In genetics, a subclade is a subgroup of a haplogroup. Naming convention Although human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) haplogroups and subclades are named in a similar manner, their names belong to completely separate sy ...

of Apiidae named Dipsapiidae was defined to consist of the three orders: Apiales,

Paracryphiales The Paracryphiaceae are a family of woody shrubs and trees native to Australia, southeast Asia, and New Caledonia. In the APG III system of 2009, the family is placed in its own order, Paracryphiales, in the campanulid clade of the asterids. In ...

, and

Dipsacales The Dipsacales are an order of flowering plants, included within the asterid group of dicotyledons. In the APG III system of 2009, the order includes only two families, Adoxaceae and a broadly defined Caprifoliaceae. Some well-known members of th ...

Taxonomy

Under the

Cronquist system The Cronquist system is a taxonomic classification system of flowering plants. It was developed by Arthur Cronquist in a series of monographs and texts, including ''The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants'' (1968; 2nd edition, 1988) ...

, only the Apiaceae and Araliaceae were included here, and the restricted order was placed among the rosids rather than the asterids. The

Pittosporaceae Pittosporaceae is a family of flowering plants that consists of 200–240 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas in 9 genera. Habitats range from tropical to temperate climates of the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, Oceanian, and Australasian realms. T ...

were placed within the

Rosales Rosales () is an order of flowering plants. Peter F. Stevens (2001 onwards). "Rosales". At: Trees At: Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see ''External links'' below) It is sister to a clade consisting of Faga ...

, and many of the other forms within the family

Cornaceae The Cornaceae are a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants in the order Cornales. The family contains approximately 85 species in two genera, ''Alangium'' and ''Cornus''. They are mostly trees and shrubs, which may be deciduous or evergreen, alt ...

. '' Pennantia'' was in the family

Icacinaceae The Icacinaceae, also called the white pear family, are a family of flowering plants,"Icacinaceae" At: Angiosperm Phylogeny Website At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website (see ''External links'' below). consisting of trees, shrubs, and lianas, pri ...

. In the classification system of Dahlgren the families Apiaceae and Araliaceae were placed in the order Ariales, in the superorder Araliiflorae (also called Aralianae). The present understanding of the Apiales is fairly recent and is based upon comparison of

DNA sequences A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases signified by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. By convention, sequences are us ...

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

methods. The circumscriptions of some of the families have changed. In 2009, one of the subfamilies of Araliaceae was shown to be

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

Gynoecia

The largest and obviously closely related families of Apiales are

Araliaceae The Araliaceae are a family of flowering plants composed of about 43 genera and around 1500 species consisting of primarily woody plants and some herbaceous plants. The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely, but it is predominantly distinguish ...

, Myodocarpaceae and

Apiaceae Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus '' Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plan ...

, which resemble each other in the structure of their gynoecia. In this respect however, the

is notably distinct from them. Typical syncarpous gynoecia exhibit four vertical zones, determined by the extent of fusion of the carpels. In most plants the synascidiate (i.e. "united bottle-shaped") and symplicate zones are fertile and bear the ovules. Each of the first three families possess mainly bi- or multilocular ovaries in a gynoecium with a long synascidiate, but very short symplicate zone, where the ovules are inserted at their transition, the so-called cross-zone (or "Querzone"). In gynoecia of the Pittosporaceae, the symplicate is much longer than the synascidiate zone, and the ovules are arranged along the first. Members of the latter family consequently have unilocular ovaries with a single cavity between adjacent carpels.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21138 Angiosperm orders Taxa named by Takenoshin Nakai