Ranunculales

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Ranunculales
Temporal range: 124–0  Ma
Creeping butercup close 800.jpg
Ranunculus repens
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Juss. ex Bercht. & J.Presl [1]
Families

See text

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.

Contents

Taxonomy

The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group recognized seven families in Ranunculales in their APG III system, published in 2009. In the preceding APG II system, they offered the option of three segregate families as shown below. [1]

Note: "+ ..." = optionally separate family (that may be split off from the preceding family).

Under this definition, well-known members of Ranunculales include buttercups, clematis, columbines, delphiniums, and poppies.

A phylogeny of Ranunculales was published in 2009, based on molecular phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences. The authors of this paper revised the subfamilies and tribes of the order. [2] This is reflected in the subsequent revision of the APG, APG IV (2016). [3]

The analysis revealed that the order consisted of three clades, Eupteleaceae, Papaveraceae and a third clade, considered to be the "core" Ranuculales, consisting of the remaining five families. The phylogeny of the families is shown in the cladogram.

Cladogram of Ranunculales families [2]
Ranunculales

Eupteleaceae

Papaveraceae

Circaeasteraceae

Lardizabalaceae

Menispermaceae

Berberidaceae

Ranunculaceae

Evolution

The fossil form Leefructus , described in 2011, has been recognized as a member of this order. [4] Leefructus mirus shows fully developed leaves; stem and flower that are very similar in structure to those of the modern buttercups. The fossil is dated to 125 million years old and it not only proves that Ranunculales is an ancient group of eudicots but demonstrates that the whole angiosperm clade may be older than expected. The structure of the plant and its age may lead to a new approach regarding the field that studies the evolution of flowering plants. The fact that Leefructus shows a well-developed structure similar to modern ranunculids suggests that this group of eudicots may have developed earlier than the age of the fossil.

Another fossil has been described with the name Teixeiraea , also from the Cretaceous.

History

Historically the term Ranales was used to include the Ranunculaceae and related families, as described by Bentham and Hooker. This became replaced with Ranunculales by Melchior in 1964.

The Cronquist system (1981) also recognised the order, but placed it in the subclass Magnoliidae, in class Magnoliopsida [= dicotyledons]. It used this circumscription:

In the Cronquist system, the Papaveraceae and Fumariaceae (including the plants in the optional family Pteridophyllaceae) were treated as a separate order Papaverales, placed in this same subclass Magnoliidae. The Cronquist circumscription of Ranunculales is now known to be polyphyletic. Sabiaceae is in a clade of basal eudicots separate from Ranunculales. Coriariaceae is now placed in the order Cucurbitales.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnoliales</span> Basal order of flowering plants

The Magnoliales are an order of flowering plants.

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

Hamamelidales is an order of flowering plants formerly accepted in a number of systems of plant taxonomy, including the Cronquist system published in 1968 and 1988. The order is not currently accepted in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III system of plant taxonomy, the most widely accepted system as molecular systematic studies have suggested that these families are not closely related to each other. The APG II system (2003) assigns them to several different orders: Hamamelidaceae and Cercidiphyllaceae to Saxifragales, Eupteleaceae to Ranunculales, Platanaceae to Proteales, and Myrothamnaceae to Gunnerales. Additional studies of the chloroplast genome have since confirmed that the families moved into the Saxigragales are closely related.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnoliopsida</span>

Magnoliopsida is a valid botanical name for a class of flowering plants. By definition the class will include the family Magnoliaceae, but its circumscription can otherwise vary, being more inclusive or less inclusive depending upon the classification system being discussed.

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 and An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants (1981).

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

Proteales is an order of flowering plants consisting of three families. The Proteales have been recognized by almost all taxonomists.

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

Ranunculaceae is a family of over 2,000 known species of flowering plants in 43 genera, distributed worldwide.

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

The Papaveraceae are an economically important family of about 42 genera and approximately 775 known species of flowering plants in the order Ranunculales, informally known as the poppy family. The family is cosmopolitan, occurring in temperate and subtropical climates, but almost unknown in the tropics. Most are herbaceous plants, but a few are shrubs and small trees. The family currently includes two groups that have been considered to be separate families: Fumariaceae and Pteridophyllaceae.

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

Nelumbonaceae is a family of aquatic flowering plants. Nelumbo is the sole extant genus, containing Nelumbo lutea, native to North America, and Nelumbo nucifera, widespread in Asia. At least five other genera, Nelumbites, Exnelumbites, Paleonelumbo, Nelumbago, and Notocyamus are known from fossils.

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

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

Lardizabalaceae is a family of flowering plants.

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

Sabiaceae is a family of flowering plants that were placed in the order Proteales according to the APG IV system. It comprises three genera, Meliosma, Ophiocaryon and Sabia, with 66 known species, native to tropical to warm temperate regions of southern Asia and the Americas. The family has also been called Meliosmaceae Endl., 1841, nom. rej.

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

Circaeasteraceae is a family of two species of herbaceous plants native to China and the Himalayas.

<i>Euptelea</i> Genus of flowering plants

Euptelea is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the monogeneric family Eupteleaceae. The genus is found from Assam east through China to Japan, and consists of shrubs or small trees:

The APG 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 APG II in 2003, APG III system in 2009 and APG IV system in 2016.

The Kubitzki system is a system of plant taxonomy devised by Klaus Kubitzki, and is the product of an ongoing survey of vascular plants, entitled The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, and extending to 15 volumes in 2018. The survey, in the form of an encyclopedia, is important as a comprehensive, multivolume treatment of the vascular plants, with keys to and descriptions of all families and genera, mostly by specialists in those groups. The Kubitzki system served as the basis for classification in Mabberley's Plant-Book, a dictionary of the vascular plants. Mabberley states, in his Introduction on page xi of the 2008 edition, that the Kubitzki system "has remained the standard to which other literature is compared".

A system of plant taxonomy, the Goldberg system was published in:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basal angiosperms</span> Descendants of most extant flowering plants

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, Nymphaeales and Austrobaileyales.

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.

The Ranales are an obsolete taxon of the Dicotyledons, with rank of order typified by Ranunculus (Ranunculaceae).

References

  1. 1 2 APG 2009.
  2. 1 2 Wang et al 2009.
  3. APG 2016.
  4. Fossil is best look yet at an ancestor of buttercups

Bibliography