The Myrtales 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 placed as a sister to the

eurosids II The rosids are members of a large clade ( monophyletic group) of flowering plants, containing about 70,000 species, more than a quarter of all angiosperms. The clade is divided into 16 to 20 orders, depending upon circumscription and classific ...

clade as of the publishing of the ''Eucalyptus grandis'' genome in June 2014. The APG III system of classification for

angiosperms 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 ...

still places it within the eurosids. This finding is corroborated by the placement of the Myrtales in the Malvid clade by the One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes Initiative. The following families are included as of APGIII: * Alzateaceae S. A. Graham *

Combretaceae The Combretaceae, often called the white mangrove family, are a family of flowering plants in the order Myrtales. The family includes about 530 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas in ca 10 genera. The family includes the leadwood tree, ''Combret ...

R. Br. ( leadwood family) * Crypteroniaceae A. DC. *

Lythraceae Lythraceae is a family of flowering plants, including 32 genera, with about 620 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees. The larger genera include ''Cuphea'' (275 spp.), ''Lagerstroemia'' (56), ''Nesaea'' (50), ''Rotala'' (45), and ''Lythrum'' (35). ...

J. St.-Hil. ( loosestrife and

pomegranate The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae, that grows between tall. The pomegranate was originally described throughout the Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean re ...

family) *

Melastomataceae Melastomataceae is a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants found mostly in the tropics (two-thirds of the genera are from the New World tropics) comprising c. 175 genera and c. 5115 known species. Melastomes are annual or perennial herbs, s ...

Juss. (including

Memecylaceae Memecylaceae DC. was a family of flowering plants. The family included about 430 species of trees and shrubs in seven genera. Memecylaceae are widespread in the tropics. The family has now been included within the Melastomataceae under the APG II ...

DC.) *

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae, the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All speci ...

Juss. (myrtle family; including

Heteropyxidaceae ''Heteropyxis'' is a genus which includes three species of small evergreen trees. It was previously placed along in family Heteropyxidaceae, but is now placed basally within Myrtaceae. The species of ''Heteropyxis'' are native to southern Africa. ...

Engl. & Gilg,

Psiloxylaceae ''Psiloxylon mauritianum'' (known locally as "bois bigaignon") is a species of flowering plant, the sole species of the genus ''Psiloxylon''. It is endemic to the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius and Réunion) in the Indian Ocean. It is a white-ba ...

Croizat) *

Onagraceae The Onagraceae are a family of flowering plants known as the willowherb family or evening primrose family. They include about 650 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees evening primrose ''Oenothera'' is a genus of about 145 species of herbaceous flowering plants native to the Americas. It is the type genus of the family Onagraceae. Common names include evening primrose, suncups, and sundrops. They are not closely related to ...

and

Fuchsia ''Fuchsia'' () is a genus of flowering plants that consists mostly of shrubs or small trees. The first to be scientifically described, '' Fuchsia triphylla'', was discovered on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republi ...

family) *

Penaeaceae The Penaeaceae are a family of evergreen, leathery-leaved shrubs and small trees, native to South Africa. The family has 29 species in 9 genera.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards)Penaeaceae.

Sweet ex Guill. (including Oliniaceae Arn., Rhynchocalycaceae L. A. S. Johnson & B. G. Briggs) * Vochysiaceae A. St.-Hil. 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 ...

gives essentially the same composition, except the Vochysiaceae are removed to the order

Polygalales The Fabales are an order of flowering plants included in the rosid group of the eudicots in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II classification system. In the APG II circumscription, this order includes the families Fabaceae or legumes (including ...

, and the

Thymelaeaceae The Thymelaeaceae are a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants composed of 50 genera (listed below) and 898 species.Zachary S. Rogers (2009 onwards)A World Checklist of Thymelaeaceae (version 1) Missouri Botanical Garden Website, St. Louis. It ...

are included. The families

Sonneratiaceae Sonneratiaceae were a family of flowering plants placed in the order Myrtales by the Cronquist system. They consisted of two genera, ''Sonneratia'' and ''Duabanga''. These are now generally placed in their own monotypic subfamilies of the family ...

Trapaceae The water caltrop is any of three extant species of the genus ''Trapa'': ''Trapa natans'', ''Trapa bicornis'' and the endangered ''Trapa rossica''. It is also known as buffalo nut, bat nut, devil pod, ling gok ( Chinese: 菱角), ling nut, lin ko ...

, and Punicaceae are removed from the Lythraceae. In the classification system of Dahlgren the Myrtales were in the superorder Myrtiflorae (also called Myrtanae). The APGIII system agrees with the older Cronquist circumscriptions of treating Psiloxylaceae and Heteropyxidaceae within Myrtaceae, and Memecyclaceae within Melastomataceae.

Ellagitannin The ellagitannins are a diverse class of hydrolyzable tannins, a type of polyphenol formed primarily from the oxidative linkage of galloyl groups in 1,2,3,4,6-pentagalloyl glucose. Ellagitannins differ from gallotannins, in that their galloyl group ...

s are reported in dicotyledoneous angiosperms, and notably in species in the order Myrtales.

Origins

Myrtales is dated to have begun 89–99 million years ago (mya) in

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...

. There is some contention as to that date however, which was obtained using

nuclear DNA Nuclear DNA (nDNA), or nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid, is the DNA contained within each cell nucleus of a eukaryotic organism. It encodes for the majority of the genome in eukaryotes, with mitochondrial DNA and plastid DNA coding for the rest. I ...

. When looking at

chloroplast DNA Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) is the DNA located in chloroplasts, which are photosynthetic organelles located within the cells of some eukaryotic organisms. Chloroplasts, like other types of plastid, contain a genome separate from that in the cell nu ...

, the myrtales ancestor is instead considered to have evolved in the mid-Cretaceous period (100mya) in Southeast Africa, rather than in Australasia. Although the APG system classifies myrtales as within the eurosids, the recently published genome of ''Eucalyptus grandis'' places the order myrtales as a sister to the eurosids rather than inside them. The discrepancy is thought to have arisen due to the difference between using numerous taxa versus using various genes for constructing a phylogeny.

References

External links

{{Authority control Angiosperm orders Flora of Australasia

Origins

References

Further reading

External links