The Malpighiales comprise one of the largest orders of flowering plants, containing about 36 families and more than 16,000 species, about 7.8% of the eudicots. The order is very diverse, containing plants as different as the willow, violet, poinsettia, manchineel, rafflesia and coca plant, and are hard to recognize except with molecular phylogenetic evidence. It is not part of any of the classification systems based only on plant morphology. Molecular clock calculations estimate the origin of stem group Malpighiales at around 100 million years ago (Mya) and the origin of crown group Malpighiales at about 90 Mya.
Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-notfamily, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees, and herbs in 146 to 156 genera with a worldwide distribution.
The Aquifoliales are an order of flowering plants, including the Aquifoliaceae (holly) family, and also the Helwingiaceae and the Phyllonomaceae. In 2001, the families Stemonuraceae and Cardiopteridaceae were added to this order. This circumscription of Aquifoliales was recognized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group when they published the APG II system in 2003. In the Cronquist system, there is no Aquifoliales order: the Aquifoliaceae are placed within the order Celastrales and the others are in other families.
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.
The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) is an informal international group of systematic botanists who collaborate to establish a consensus on the taxonomy of flowering plants (angiosperms) that reflects new knowledge about plant relationships discovered through phylogenetic studies.
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.
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 northeastern Queensland, Australia.
In the APG IV system (2016) for the classification of flowering plants, the name asterids denotes a clade. Asterids is the largest group of flowering plants, with more than 80,000 species, about a third of the total flowering plant species. Well-known plants in this clade include the common daisy, forget-me-nots, nightshades, the common sunflower, petunias, yacon, morning glory, lettuce, sweet potato, coffee, lavender, lilac, olive, jasmine, honeysuckle, ash tree, teak, snapdragon, sesame, psyllium, garden sage, table herbs such as mint, basil, and rosemary, and rainforest trees such as Brazil nut.
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 family Magnoliaceae and Illiciaceae.
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.
The Cabombaceae are a family of aquatic, herbaceous flowering plants. A common name for its species is water shield. The family is recognised as distinct in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group IV system (2016). The family consists of two genera of aquatic plants, Brasenia and Cabomba, totalling six species.
Boraginales is an order of flowering plants in the asterid clade. It includes the Boraginaceae and a number of other families, with a total of about 125 genera and 2,700 species. Its herbs, shrubs, trees and lianas (vines) have a worldwide distribution.
Hoplestigma is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae, although this is disputed, and it has been placed in its own family Hoplestigmataceae. Its two species are native to Cameroon, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Liberia in western tropical Africa.
Pennantia is the sole genus in the plant family Pennantiaceae. In older classifications, it was placed in the family Icacinaceae. Most authorities have recognised three or four species, depending on whether they recognised Pennantia baylisiana as a separate species from Pennantia endlicheri. British-born botanist David Mabberley has recognised two species.
Cardiopteridaceae is a eudicot family of flowering plants. It consists of about 43 species of trees, shrubs, and woody vines, mostly of the tropics, but with a few in temperate regions. It contains six genera, the largest of which is Citronella, with 21 species. The other genera are much smaller.
Oncotheca is a genus of tree endemic to New Caledonia. There are two species, Oncotheca balansae and Oncotheca humboldtiana.
When the APG II system of plant classification was published in April 2003, fifteen genera and three families were placed incertae sedis in the angiosperms, and were listed in a section of the appendix entitled "Taxa of uncertain position".
Hydrostachys is a genus of about 22 species of flowering plants native to Madagascar and southern and central Africa. It is the only genus in the family Hydrostachyaceae. All species of Hydrostachys are aquatic, growing on rocks in fast-moving water. They have tuberous roots, usually pinnately compound leaves, and highly reduced flowers on dense spikes.
Icacinales is an order of Angiosperms.
Dendrobangia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Metteniusaceae. It was formerly placed in the family Cardiopteridaceae. It was described as a genus in 1896.
