The Gunnerales 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. In the

APG III system The APG III system of flowering plant classification is the third version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). Published in 2009, it was superseded in 2016 by a fur ...

(2009) and

APG IV system The APG IV system of flowering plant classification is the fourth version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy for flowering plants (angiosperms) being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). It was publishe ...

(2016) it contains two genera: ''

Gunnera ''Gunnera'' is the sole genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Gunneraceae, which contains 63 species. Some species in this genus, namely those in the subgenus ''Panke'', have extremely large leaves. Species in the genus are various ...

'' (in family Gunneraceae) and ''

Myrothamnus ''Myrothamnus'' is a genus of flowering plants, consisting of two species of small xerophytic shrubs, in the southern parts of tropical Africa and in Madagascar. ''Myrothamnus'' is recognized as the only genus in the family Myrothamnaceae. My ...

'' (in family

Myrothamnaceae ''Myrothamnus'' is a genus of flowering plants, consisting of two species of small xerophytic shrubs, in the southern parts of tropical Africa and in Madagascar. ''Myrothamnus'' is recognized as the only genus in the family Myrothamnaceae. Myr ...

). In 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) a ...

(1981), the Gunneraceae were in the

Haloragales Haloragales is an order of flowering plants. In the Cronquist system of classification, of 1981, it was placed in subclass Rosidae and had this circumscription: * order Haloragales *: family Haloragaceae (this includes water milfoil ''Myriop ...

and Myrothamnaceae in the

Hamamelidales Hamamelidales is an order of flowering plants formerly accepted in a number of systems of plant taxonomy, including the Cronquist system published in 1968 and 1988. The order is not currently accepted in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III system ...

. DNA analysis was definitive, but the grouping of the two families was a surprise, given their very dissimilar morphologies. In Cronquist's old system (1981, 1988), and Takhtajan's (1997), the Gunneraceae were in the Rosidae, and the Myrothamnaceae were in the Hamamelids. In modern classification systems such as APG III and APG IV this order was the first to derive from the core eudicots.

Description

Both families contain

ellagic acid Ellagic acid is a polyphenol found in numerous fruits and vegetables. It is the dilactone of hexahydroxydiphenic acid. Name The name comes from the French term ''acide ellagique'', from the word ''galle'' spelled backwards because it can be ob ...

Phloem Phloem (, ) is the living biological tissue, tissue in vascular plants that transports the soluble organic compounds made during photosynthesis and known as ''photosynthates'', in particular the sugar sucrose, to the rest of the plant. This tran ...

cells contain a large number of plastids and the leaves have dented borders. The plants are dioecious, have small flowers without

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...

, and the stigma is at least weakly secretory. Gunnerales characters shared with the core of the eudicots are cyanogenesis via

phenylalanine Phenylalanine (symbol Phe or F) is an essential α-amino acid with the formula . It can be viewed as a benzyl group substituted for the methyl group of alanine, or a phenyl group in place of a terminal hydrogen of alanine. This essential amino a ...

, metabolic pathways of isoleucine or valine, presence of the DNA sequence of PI-dB motif, 9 and is common to suffer a small deletion in the sequence of 18S ribosomal DNA. The characters which it shares with the core of eudicotyledons, and also with Buxales and Trochodendrales are: absence of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids, ''euAP3'' + ''TM6'' genes (gene duplication ''paleoAP3'': Class B), and loss of the

mitochondria A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the Cell (biology), cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and Fungus, fungi. Mitochondria have a double lipid bilayer, membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosi ...

l gene ''rps2''.

Ecology

Despite being related, the

and the Gunneraceae look very different: * The Gunneraceae are a mesophilic herb (often oversized), and the hydathodes are well developed and secrete mucilage or perhaps a resinous coating. * The Myrothamnaceae are a reviviscent shrub of arid habitats, and the hydathodes are poorly developed and secrete plant resin. Both have flowers without perianth, but the details of pollen (e.g. Zavada and Dilcher see 1986 10, Wanntorp et al. 2004th 2004b 11 and 12) differ. In Wilkinson 2000 13 is a table of differences.

References

External links

Gunnerales
in Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards)
Angiosperm Phylogeny Website
Version 7, May 2006. {{Taxonbar, from=Q21846 Angiosperm orders Dioecious plants