Austrobaileyales is 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 consisting of about 100 species of

woody plant A woody plant is a plant that produces wood as its structural tissue and thus has a hard stem. In cold climates, woody plants further survive winter or dry season above ground, as opposite to herbaceous plants that die back to the ground until sp ...

s growing as trees, shrubs and

lianas A liana is a long- stemmed, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy in search of direct sunlight. The word ''liana'' does not refer to a ta ...

. The best-known species is ''

Illicium verum ''Illicium verum'' is a medium-sized evergreen tree native to northeast Vietnam and southwest China. A spice commonly called star anise, staranise, star anise seed, star aniseed, star of anise, Chinese star anise, or badian that closely resembl ...

'', commonly known as

star anise ''Illicium verum'' is a medium-sized evergreen tree native to northeast Vietnam and southwest China. A spice commonly called star anise, staranise, star anise seed, star aniseed, star of anise, Chinese star anise, or badian that closely resembl ...

. The order belongs to the group of

basal angiosperms The basal angiosperms are the flowering plants which diverged from the lineage leading to most flowering plants. In particular, the most basal angiosperms were called the ANITA grade, which is made up of '' Amborella'' (a single species of shrub ...

, the ANA grade (

Amborellales ''Amborella'' is a monotypic genus of understory shrubs or small trees endemic to the main island, Grande Terre, of New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The genus is the only member of the family Amborellaceae and the order Amborella ...

Nymphaeales The Nymphaeales are an order (biology), order of flowering plants, consisting of three Family (biology), families of aquatic plants, the Hydatellaceae, the Cabombaceae, and the Nymphaeaceae (water lilies). It is one of the three orders of basal a ...

, and Austrobaileyales), which diverged earlier from the remaining flowering plants. Austrobaileyales is sister to all remaining extant angiosperms outside the ANA grade.Insights into the dynamics of genome size and chromosome evolution in the early diverging angiosperm lineage Nymphaeales (water lilies), Jaume Pellicer, Laura J Kelly, Carlos Magdalena, Ilia Leitch, 2013, Genome, 10.1139/gen-2013-0039 The order includes just three families of flowering plants, the Austrobaileyaceae, a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

family containing the sole genus, ''

Austrobaileya scandens ''Austrobaileya'' is the sole genus consisting of a single species that constitutes the entire flowering plant family Austrobaileyaceae. The species ''Austrobaileya scandens'' grows naturally only in the Wet Tropics rainforests of northeast ...

'', a woody liana, the

Schisandraceae Schisandraceae is a family of flowering plants with 3 known genera and a total of 92 known species. Such a family has been recognized by most taxonomists, at least for the past several decades. Before that, the plants concerned were assigned to f ...

, a family of trees, shrubs, or lianas containing

essential oil An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the o ...

s, and the

Trimeniaceae Trimeniaceae is a family of flowering plants recognized by most taxonomists, at least for the past several decades. It is a small family of one genus, '' Trimenia'', with eight known species (Christenhusz & Byng 2016) of woody plants, bearing ess ...

, essential oil-bearing trees and lianas.

In different classifications

Until the early 21st century, the order was only rarely recognised by systems of classification (an exception is the

Reveal system A 20th-century system of plant taxonomy, the Reveal system (see also the Thorne & Reveal system) of plant classification was drawn up by the American botanist James Reveal (1941-2015). The system was published online in 1997 in ten parts as lectu ...

). The

APG system The APG system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system) of plant classification is the first version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy. Published in 1998 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, it was replaced by the improved AP ...

, of 1998, did not recognize such an order. The

APG II system The APG II system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II system) of plant classification is the second, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy that was published in April 2003 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Gro ...

, of 2003, does accept this order and places it among the basal angiosperms, that is: it does not belong to any further clade. APG II uses this circumscription: * order Austrobaileyales ** family

Austrobaileyaceae ''Austrobaileya'' is the sole genus consisting of a single species that constitutes the entire flowering plant family Austrobaileyaceae. The species ''Austrobaileya scandens'' grows naturally only in the Wet Tropics rainforests of northe ...

, one species of woody

vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

s from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

** family

_family_Illiciaceae.html" ;"title="Illiciaceae.html" ;"title=" family Illiciaceae"> family Illiciaceae">Illiciaceae.html" ;"title=" family Illiciaceae"> family Illiciaceae several dozen species of

s, found in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

to temperate regions of East Asia, East and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

and the Caribbean. The best known of those is Star anise. ** family

, half-a-dozen species of

s found in

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...

, eastern

and the

Pacific Islands Collectively called the Pacific Islands, the islands in the Pacific Ocean are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of se ...

Note: "+ ..."=optional segregate family, that may be split off from the preceding family. 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 ...

, of 1981, also placed the plants in families Illiciaceae and Schisandraceae together, but as separate families, united at the

rank Rank is the relative position, value, worth, complexity, power, importance, authority, level, etc. of a person or object within a ranking, such as: Level or position in a hierarchical organization * Academic rank * Diplomatic rank * Hierarchy * H ...

of order, in the order Illiciales.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21788 Angiosperm orders