Gentianales

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Gentianales
Gentiana cruciata 2.jpg
Gentiana cruciata
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Clade: Lamiids
Order: Gentianales
Juss. ex Bercht. & J.Presl
Families
Synonyms

Gentianales is an order of flowering plant, included within the asterid clade of eudicots. It comprises more than 20,000 species in about 1,200 genera in 5 families. [1] More than 80% of the species in this order belong to the family Rubiaceae.

Contents

Many of these flowering plants are used in traditional medicine. [2] They have been used to treat pain, anxiety, cancers and neurological conditions.

Taxonomy

In the classification system of Dahlgren the Gentiales were in the superorder Gentianiflorae (also called Gentiananae). The following families are included according to the APG III system: [3]

Phylogeny

The following phylogenetic tree is based on molecular phylogenetic studies of DNA sequences. [4]

Gentianales

Etymology

It takes its name from the family Gentianaceae, which in turn is based on the name of the type genus, Gentiana . The genus name is a tribute to Gentius, an Illyrian king.

Characteristics

This large order has a variety of different plants, ranging from small herbaceous plants and saprophytes to shrubs and large trees. [5] Species are, however, united by their simple and opposite leaves and typically have showy pentamerous flowers (flowers in which components occur in multiples of five) and show nuclear endosperm formation (in which cell division takes place without the cell wall forming between divisions). [1] [5] Many species have structures between the leaf petioles, such as ridges or stipules. [5] Many species also have colleters; thick hair-like structures that secrete mucilage, a thick gluey substance. [5]

Distribution

Species of this order are found in moist climates around the world. They are most common in tropical regions. [5]

Uses

Many gentianales contain toxic compounds and species have a variety of uses. Some species are also grown ornamentally. [5] Well-known members of Gentianales are coffee, frangipani, Gardenia , gentian, oleander, and periwinkle.

Certain species belonging to the order Gentianales have been used in traditional medicine in rural southeastern Asia countries. Gelsemium sempervirens has been used in North American folk medicine to treat conditions such as anxiety, migraines/headaches, and neuralgia, while Gelsemium elegans has been used in China to treat rheumatoid arthritis pain, neuropathic pain, skin ulcers, and even cancers. [2]

The compounds found in some species are used in the synthesis of modern medicines. Cinchona trees, for example, are a source of quinine, which is used to treat malaria. [6] Vinblastine, which has anti-tumor properties as it disrupts cell division, is used in chemotherapy. It is extracted from the Madagascar periwinkle.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosales</span> Order of flowering plants

Rosales is an order of flowering plants. It is sister to a clade consisting of Fagales and Cucurbitales. It contains about 7,700 species, distributed into about 260 genera. Rosales comprise nine families, the type family being the rose family, Rosaceae. The largest of these families are Rosaceae (91/4828) and Urticaceae (53/2625). The order Rosales is divided into three clades that have never been assigned a taxonomic rank. The basal clade consists of the family Rosaceae; another clade consists of four families, including Rhamnaceae; and the third clade consists of the four urticalean families.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rubiaceae</span> Family of flowering plants including coffee, madder and bedstraw

Rubiaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules and sympetalous actinomorphic flowers. The family contains about 14,100 species in about 580 genera, which makes it the fourth-largest angiosperm family. Rubiaceae has a cosmopolitan distribution; however, the largest species diversity is concentrated in the tropics and subtropics. Economically important genera include Coffea, the source of coffee; Cinchona, the source of the antimalarial alkaloid quinine; ornamental cultivars ; and historically some dye plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dicotyledon</span> Historical grouping of flowering plants

The dicotyledons, also known as dicots, are one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants (angiosperms) were formerly divided. The name refers to one of the typical characteristics of the group: namely, that the seed has two embryonic leaves or cotyledons. There are around 200,000 species within this group. The other group of flowering plants were called monocotyledons, typically each having one cotyledon. Historically, these two groups formed the two divisions of the flowering plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rubiales (plant)</span> Order of flowering plants

Rubiales was an order of flowering plants in the Cronquist system, including the families Rubiaceae and Theligonaceae. The latest APG system (2016) does not recognize this order and places the families within Gentianales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buxales</span> Order of eudicot flowering plants

The Buxales are a small order of eudicot flowering plants, recognized by the APG IV system of 2016. The order includes the family Buxaceae; the families Didymelaceae and Haptanthaceae may also be recognized or may be included in the Buxaceae. Many members of the order are evergreen shrubs or trees, although some are herbaceous perennials. They have separate "male" (staminate) and "female" (carpellate) flowers, mostly on the same plant. Some species are of economic importance either for the wood they produce or as ornamental plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hemerocallidoideae</span> Subfamily of flowering plants

Hemerocallidoideae is a subfamily of flowering plants, part of the family Asphodelaceae sensu lato in the monocot order Asparagales according to the APG system of 2016. Earlier classification systems treated the group as a separate family, the Hemerocallidaceae. The name is derived from the generic name of the type genus, Hemerocallis. The largest genera in the group are Dianella, Hemerocallis (15), and Caesia (11).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buxaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

The Buxaceae are a small family of six genera and about 123 known species of flowering plants. They are shrubs and small trees, with a cosmopolitan distribution. A seventh genus, sometimes accepted in the past (Notobuxus), has been shown by genetic studies to be included within Buxus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gentianaceae</span> Family of flowering plants comprising gentians

Gentianaceae is a family of flowering plants of 105 genera and about 1600 species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loganiaceae</span> Family of plants

The Loganiaceae are a family of flowering plants classified in order Gentianales. The family includes up to 13 genera, distributed around the world's tropics. There are not any great morphological characteristics to distinguish these taxa from others in the order Gentianales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gelsemiaceae</span> Family of plants

Gelsemiaceae is a family of flowering plants, belonging to the order Gentianales. The family contains only three genera: Gelsemium, Mostuea and Pteleocarpa. Gelsemium has three species, one native to Southeast Asia and southern China and two native to Central America, Mexico, and the southeastern United States. The eight species of Mostuea are native to tropical areas of South America, Africa, and Madagascar. The two genera were formerly classified in the family Loganiaceae. Pteleocarpa was originally placed in Boraginaceae or in its own family Pteleocarpaceae, but it is most closely related to Gelsemiaceae with which it shares significant characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berberidaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

The Berberidaceae are a family of 18 genera of flowering plants commonly called the barberry family. This family is in the order Ranunculales. The family contains about 700 known species, of which the majority are in the genus Berberis. The species include trees, shrubs and perennial herbaceous plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chloranthaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Chloranthaceae is a family of flowering plants (angiosperms), the only family in the order Chloranthales. It is not closely related to any other family of flowering plants, and is among the early-diverging lineages in the angiosperms. They are woody or weakly woody plants occurring in Southeast Asia, the Pacific, Madagascar, Central and South America, and the West Indies. The family consists of four extant genera, totalling about 77 known species according to Christenhusz and Byng in 2016. Some species are used in traditional medicine. The type genus is Chloranthus. The fossil record of the family, mostly represented by pollen such as Clavatipollenites, extends back to the dawn of the history of flowering plants in the Early Cretaceous, and has been found on all continents.

Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, identifies, describes, classifies, and names plants. It is one of the main branches of taxonomy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boraginales</span> Order of flowering plants within the lammiid clade of eudicots

Boraginales is an order of flowering plants in the asterid clade, with a total of about 125 genera and 2,700 species. Different taxonomic treatments either include only a single family, the Boraginaceae, or divide it into up to eleven families. Its herbs, shrubs, trees and lianas (vines) have a worldwide distribution.

Pteleocarpa is a genus of flowering plants. The only member of the genus is the western Malesian tree Pteleocarpa lamponga. It has had a varied systematic history and has been placed in the families Icacinaceae, Cardiopteridaceae, Boraginaceae, and others. It has long been regarded as enigmatic. For example, its winged fruit is quite odd within the family Boraginaceae, where it was usually placed in the 2000s. The family name Pteleocarpaceae had been used, but was not validly published until 2011, when the required description was published in Kew Bulletin. A morphological study of Pteleocarpa was published in 2014. Also in 2014, a molecular phylogenetic study of the lamiids sampled Pteleocarpa and resolved it as sister to Gelsemiaceae. Both genera of Gelsemiaceae were sampled and this result had maximum statistical support in three different methods of cladistic analysis. The authors of that study recommended that Pteleocarpa be included in Gelsemiaceae. This was formally done in 2014 by altering the description of the family to accommodate it. In the APG IV system published in 2016, Pteleocarpa is included in Gelsemiaceae.

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 further revision, the APG IV system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alismatid monocots</span> Grade of flowering plant orders within Lilianae

Alismatid monocots is an informal name for a group of early branching monocots, consisting of two orders, the Acorales and Alismatales. The name has also been used to refer to the Alismatales alone. Monocots are frequently treated as three informal groupings based on their branching from ancestral monocots and shared characteristics: alismatid monocots, lilioid monocots and commelinid monocots. Research at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew is organised into two teams I: Alismatids and Lilioids and II: Commelinids. A similar approach is taken by Judd in his Plant systematics.

Birgitta Bremer, Swedish botanist and academic, is professor at Stockholm University, and director of the Bergius Botanic Garden.

Contortae as a term has appeared in several senses in botanical taxonomy, most conspicuously as follows:

References

  1. 1 2 Yang, Lei-Lei; Li, Hong-Lei; Wei, Lei; Yang, Tuo; Kuang, Dai-Yong; Li, Ming-Hong; Liao, Yi-Ying; Chen, Zhi-Duan; Wu, Hong; Zhang, Shou-Zhou (July 2016). "A supermatrix approach provides a comprehensive genus-level phylogeny for Gentianales: Phylogeny of Gentianales". Journal of Systematics and Evolution. 54 (4): 400–415. doi: 10.1111/jse.12192 .
  2. 1 2 Jin, Gui-Lin; Su, Yan-Ping; Liu, Ming; Xu, Ying; Yang, Jian; Liao, Kai-Jun; Yu, Chang-Xi (February 2014). "Medicinal plants of the genus Gelsemium (Gelsemiaceae, Gentianales)—A review of their phytochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology and traditional use". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 152 (1): 33–52. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2014.01.003. PMID   24434844.
  3. Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (2): 105–121. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x . hdl: 10654/18083 .
  4. Backlund M, Oxelman B, Bremer B (2000). "Phylogenetic relationships within the Gentianales based on NDHF and RBCL sequences, with particular reference to the Loganiaceae". American Journal of Botany. 87 (7): 1029–1043. doi:10.2307/2657003. JSTOR   2657003. PMID   10898781. S2CID   15433433.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Struwe, Lena. (2002). Gentianales (Coffees, Dogbanes, Gentians and Milkweeds). 10.1038/npg.els.0003732
  6. Jain, Himanshu Misra Bhupendra K. Mehta Dharam C. (2008). Optimization of Extraction Conditions and HPTLC - UV Method for Determination of Quinine in Different Extracts of Cinchona species Bark. ACG Publications. OCLC   859945268.