The Dioscoreales are an order of monocotyledonous flowering plants in modern classification systems, such as the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group and the Angiosperm Phylogeny Web. Within the monocots Dioscoreales are grouped in the lilioid monocots, where they are in a sister group relationship with the Pandanales. The Dioscoreales must contain the family Dioscoreaceae which includes the yam (Dioscorea), some species of which are an important food source in many regions. Older systems tended to place all lilioid monocots with reticulate veined leaves in Dioscoreales. As currently circumscribed by phylogenetic analysis using combined morphology and molecular methods, Dioscreales contains many reticulate veined vines in Dioscoraceae, it also includes the myco-heterotrophic Burmanniaceae and the autotrophic Nartheciaceae. The order consists of three families, 22 genera and about 850 species.
Family is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family".
Order 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 recognized by the nomenclature codes. An immediately higher rank, superorder, is sometimes added directly above order, with suborder directly beneath order. An order can also be defined as a group of related families.
The order Pinales in the division Pinophyta, class Pinopsida, comprises all the extant conifers. The distinguishing characteristic is the reproductive structure known as a cone produced by all Pinales. All of the extant conifers, such as Araucaria, cedar, celery-pine, cypress, fir, juniper, kauri, larch, pine, redwood, spruce, and yew, are included here. Some fossil conifers, however, belong to other distinct orders within the division Pinophyta.
Piperales is an order of flowering plants. It necessarily includes the family Piperaceae but other taxa have been included or disincluded variously over time. Well-known plants which may be included in this order include black pepper, kava, pepper elder, lizard's tail, birthwort, and wild ginger.
Ranunculales is an order of flowering plants. Of necessity it contains the family Ranunculaceae, the buttercup family, because the name of the order is based on the name of a genus in that family. Ranunculales belongs to a paraphyletic group known as the basal eudicots. It is the most basal clade in this group; in other words, it is sister to the remaining eudicots. Widely known members include poppies, barberries, hellebores, and buttercups.
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For 20 years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker, and was awarded the highest honours of British science.
George Bentham was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studied law, but had a fascination with botany from an early age, which he soon pursued, becoming president of the Linnaean Society in 1861, and a fellow of the Royal Society in 1862. He was the author of a number of important botanical works, particularly flora. He is best known for his taxonomic classification of plants in collaboration with Joseph Dalton Hooker, his Genera Plantarum (1862–1883). He died in London in 1884.
Galtonia is a genus of plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae. Native to Southern Africa, the genus is named after Sir Francis Galton. According to some authorities it has been subsumed into Ornithogalum as a subgenus, while others prefer to keep it as a separate genus.
Peridiscaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Saxifragales. Four genera comprise this family: Medusandra, Soyauxia, Peridiscus, and Whittonia., with a total of 12 known species. It has a disjunct distribution, with Peridiscus occurring in Venezuela and northern Brazil, Whittonia in Guyana, Medusandra in Cameroon, and Soyauxia in tropical West Africa. Whittonia is possibly extinct, being known from only one specimen collected below Kaieteur Falls in Guyana. In 2006, archeologists attempted to rediscover it, however, it proved unsuccessful.
Sympetaly is a flower characteristic that historically was used to classify a grouping of plants termed Sympetalae, but this term has been abandoned in newer molecular based classifications, although the grouping has similarity to the modern term asterids.
Tetracarpaea is the only genus in the flowering plant family Tetracarpaeaceae. Some taxonomists place it in the family Haloragaceae sensu lato, expanding that family from its traditional circumscription to include Penthorum and Tetracarpaea, and sometimes Aphanopetalum as well.
Gamopetalae is an artificial historical group used in the identification of plants based on Bentham and Hooker's classification system.
Inferae is an artificial group used in the identification of plants based on Bentham and Hooker's classification. Bentham and Hooker published an excellent classification in three volumes in between 1862 and 1883. As a natural system of classification, it does not show evolutionary relationship between plants but still is a useful and popular system of classification based on a dichotomous key especially for the flowering plant groups (angiosperms). It is the most popular system of classification based on key characteristics enabling taxonomic students to quickly identify plant groups based only on physical characteristics. However, it is not a scientific group and is used for identification purposes only based on similar plant characteristics. Under the system Inferae are a group of plants based on an artificial and non scientific series. The group Inferae are Gamopetalae and dicotyledons. The group comprises;
Bicarpellatae is an artificial group used in the identification of plants based on Bentham and Hooker's classification system. George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker published an excellent classification in three volumes in between 1862 and 1883. As a natural system of classification, it does not show evolutionary relationship between plants but still is a useful and popular system of classification based on a dichotomous key especially for the flowering plant groups (angiosperms). It is the most popular system of classification based on key characteristics enabling taxonomic students to quickly identify plant groups based only on physical characteristics. However, it is not a scientific group and is used for identification purposes only based on similar plant characteristics. Under the system Bicarpellatae are a group of plants based on an artificial and non scientific series. The group Bicarpellatea are Gamopetalae and dicotyledons. The group comprises;
Heteromerae is an artificial group used in the identification of plants based on Bentham and Hooker classification system. Bentham and Hooker published an excellent classification in three volumes between 1862 and 1883. As a natural system of classification, it does not show evolutionary relationship between plants but still is a useful and popular system of classification based on a dichotomous key. It is the most popular system of classification especially for the flowering plant groups (angiosperms) based on key characteristics. This enables taxonomic students to quickly identify plant groups based only on physical characteristics. Under the system Heteromerae is a Sub Class, Series ii and it is often not used. The series comprises;
The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus Amaryllis and is commonly known as the amaryllis family. The leaves are usually linear, and the flowers are usually bisexual and symmetrical, arranged in umbels on the stem. The petals and sepals are undifferentiated as tepals, which may be fused at the base into a floral tube. Some also display a corona. Allyl sulfide compounds produce the characteristic odour of the onion subfamily (Allioideae).
Coryciinae is a subtribe of orchids that has been differently defined and placed in the two classification systems that are currently in use for orchids. Genera Orchidacearum, which is currently the definitive work on orchid taxonomy, delimits Coryciinae as consisting of five genera: Disperis, Evotella, Ceratandra, Pterygodium, and Corycium, and it places Coryciinae in the mostly African tribe Diseae, along with four other subtribes: Brownleeinae, Huttonaeinae, Disinae, and Satyriinae. The genera of Coryciinae are small to medium in size and the number of species in each genus is as follows: Disperis (78), Pterygodium (19), Corycium (15), Ceratandra (6), and Evotella (1).
Disinae is a subtribe of orchids that has been differently defined and placed in the two classification systems that are currently in use for orchids. Genera Orchidacearum, which is currently the definitive work on orchid taxonomy, delimits Disinae as consisting of two closely related genera, Disa and Schizodium, and it places Disinae in the mostly African tribe Diseae, along with four other subtribes: Brownleeinae, Huttonaeinae, Coryciinae, and Satyriinae. In the classification for orchids that was published by Chase et alii in 2015, Schizodium was placed in synonymy under Disa, while Pachites and Huttonaea were transferred to Disinae. In Genera Orchidacearum, Pachites and Satyrium form the subtribe Satyriinae, and Huttonaea is the sole genus in the subtribe Huttonaeinae. The transfer of Pachites and Huttonaea to Disinae by Chase et alii (2015) was done with considerable doubt, and was based upon uncertainty about the relationships of these two genera. In 2009, a molecular phylogenetic study found only weak statistical support for a sister relationship between Huttonaea and Disa.
Coronariae is a term used historically to refer to a group of flowering plants, generally including the lilies (Liliaceae), and later replaced by the order Liliales. First used in the 17th century by John Ray, it referred to flowers used to insert in garlands. Coronariae soon came to be associated with Liliaceae in the Linnaean system. The term was abandoned at the end of the 19th century, being replaced with Liliiflorae and then Liliales.
