The Malvales are an
order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
* Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...
of
flowering plants. As circumscribed by
APG II-system, the order includes about 6000
species within 9
families. The order is placed in the
eurosids II, which are part of the
eudicots.
The plants are mostly
shrub
A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...
s and
trees; most of its families have a
cosmopolitan distribution
In biogeography, cosmopolitan distribution is the term for the range of a taxon that extends across all or most of the world in appropriate habitats. Such a taxon, usually a species, is said to exhibit cosmopolitanism or cosmopolitism. The ext ...
in the
tropics and
subtropics
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north and ...
, with limited expansion into
temperate regions. An interesting distribution occurs in
Madagascar, where three endemic families of Malvales (Sphaerosepalaceae, Sarcolaenaceae and Diegodendraceae) occur.
Many species of Malvaceae ''sensu lato'' are known for their wood, with that of ''
Ochroma'' (balsa) being known for its lightness, and that of ''
Tilia
''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperateness, temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Britain a ...
'' (lime, linden, or basswood) as a popular wood for carving. Fruit of the cacao tree (''
Theobroma cacao'') are used as an ingredient for
chocolate. Kola nuts (genus ''
Cola'') are notable for their high content of
caffeine and, in past, were commonly used for preparing of various
cola drinks. Other well-known members of Malvales in the APG II sense are
daphnes,
hibiscus,
hollyhocks,
okra,
jute
Jute is a long, soft, shiny bast fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', which is in the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ''Corchorus olit ...
,
baobab trees,
cotton,
kapok, and
durian
The durian (, ) is the edible fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus ''Durio''. There are 30 recognised ''Durio'' species, at least nine of which produce edible fruit. ''Durio zibethinus'', native to Borneo and Sumatra, is the onl ...
.
Description
The
morphology of Malvales is diverse, with few common characteristics. Among those most commonly encountered are
palmate
The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...
leaves
A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...
, connate
sepals, and a specific structure and chemical composition of the seeds. The
cortex is often fibrous, built of soft
phloem layers.
Taxonomy
Early classifications such as that of
Dahlgren placed the Malvales in the
superorder
Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...
Malviflorae (also called Malvanae). Family boundaries and circumscriptions of the "core" Malvales families, Malvaceae, Bombacaceae, Tiliaceae, and Sterculiaceae, have long been problematic. A close relationship among these families, and particularly Malvaceae and Bombacaceae, has generally been recognized, although until recently most classification systems have maintained them as separate families. With numerous molecular phylogenies showing Sterculiaceae, Bombacaceae, and Tiliaceae as traditionally defined are either paraphyletic or polyphyletic, a consensus has been emerging for a trend to expand Malvaceae to include these three families. This expanded circumscription of Malvaceae has been recognized in the most recent version of the
Thorne system, by the
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, and in the most recent comprehensive treatment of vascular plant families and genera, the
Kubitzki system.
[Bayer, C. and K. Kubitzki. 2003. Malvaceae, pp. 225–311. In K. Kubitzki (ed.), ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'', vol. 5, Malvales, Capparales and non-betalain Caryophyllales.
]
The dominant family in the
APG II-system is the extended Malvaceae (Malvaceae ''sensu lato'') with over 4000 species, followed by Thymelaeaceae with 750 species. This expanded circumscription of
Malvaceae is taken to include the families
Bombacaceae,
Sterculiaceae and
Tiliaceae
Tiliaceae () is a family of flowering plants. It is not a part of the APG, APG II and APG III classifications, being sunk in Malvaceae mostly as the subfamilies Tilioideae, Brownlowioideae and Grewioideae, but has an extensive historical r ...
. Under the older
Cronquist system the order contained these four "core Malvales" families plus the
Elaeocarpaceae and was placed among the
Dilleniidae. Some of the currently included families were placed by Cronquist in the
Violales.
References
Bibliography
* Alverson, W. S., K. G. Karol, D. A. Baum, M. W. Chase, S. M. Swensen, R. McCourt, and K. J. Sytsma (1998). Circumscription of the Malvales and relationships to other Rosidae: Evidence from rbcL sequence data. ''American Journal of Botany'' 85, 876–887. (Available online
Abstract
* Edlin, H. L. 1935. A critical revision of certain taxonomic groups of the Malvales. ''New Phytologist'' 34: 1-20, 122–143.
* Judd, W.S., C. S. Campbell, E. A. Kellogg, P. F. Stevens, M. J. Donoghue (2002). ''Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach, 2nd edition''. pp. 405–410 (Malvales). Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts. .
* Kubitzki, K. and M. W. Chase. 2003. Introduction to Malvales, pp. 12– 16. In K. Kubitzki (ed.), ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'', vol. 5, Malvales, Capparales and non-betalain Caryophyllales.
*
du Mortier, B. C. J. (1829). ''Analyse des Familles de Plantes, avec l'indication des principaux genres qui s'y rattachent'', p. 43. Imprimerie de J. Casterman, Tournay.
* Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M. J. (1992 onwards)
The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval http://delta-intkey.com
* Whitlock, B. A. (October 2001). Malvales (Mallow). In: ''Nature Encyclopedia of Life Sciences''. Nature Publishing Group, London. (Available online
DOIELS site
External links
Tree of Life Malvales* Johansson, J.T. 2013 (and onwards). The Phylogeny of Angiosperms. Published online. http://angio.bergianska.s
{{Authority control
Angiosperm orders