Commelinales
Encyclopedia
Commelinales is the botanical name
of an order of flowering plant
s. It comprises five families: Commelinaceae
, Haemodoraceae
, Hanguanaceae
, Philydraceae
, and Pontederiaceae
. All the families combined contain over 800 species in about 70 genera
; the majority of species are in the Commelinaceae
. Plants in the order share a number of synapomorphies that tie them together, such as a lack of mycorrhizal associations
and tapetal
raphides
. Estimates differ as to when the Comminales evolved, but most suggest an origin and diversification sometime during the mid- to late Cretaceous
. Depending on the methods used, studies suggest a range of origin between 123 to 73 million years, with diversification occurring within the group 110 to 66 million years ago. The order's closest relatives are in the Zingiberales
, which includes ginger
, banana
s, cardamom
, and others.
According to the most recent classification scheme, the APG III
of 2009, the order includes five families: Commelinaceae
, Haemodoraceae
, Hanguanaceae
, Philydraceae
, and Pontederiaceae
. This is unchanged from the APG II
of 2003, but different from the older APG system
of 1998, which did not include Hanguanaceae
. The still older Cronquist system
of 1981, which was not based on molecular data, placed the order in subclass Commelinidae
of class Liliopsida
and included the families Commelinaceae
, Mayacaceae
, Rapateaceae
and Xyridaceae
. These families are now known to be only distantly related.
Botanical name
A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar and/or Group epithets must conform to the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants...
of an order of flowering plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
s. It comprises five families: Commelinaceae
Commelinaceae
Commelinaceae is a family of flowering plants. In less formal contexts, the group is referred to as the dayflower family or spiderwort family. It is one of five families in the order Commelinales and by far the largest of these with an estimated 650 species in 40 genera. Well known genera include...
, Haemodoraceae
Haemodoraceae
Haemodoraceae is a family of flowering plants. It is sometimes known as the "Bloodwort family". Primarily a Southern Hemisphere family, they are found in South Africa, Australia and New Guinea, and in the Americas Haemodoraceae is a family of flowering plants. It is sometimes known as the...
, Hanguanaceae
Hanguanaceae
Hanguanaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. Such a family has not been recognized by many taxonomists.The APG II system, of 2003 does recognize such a family and places it in the order Commelinales, in the clade commelinids, in the monocots...
, Philydraceae
Philydraceae
Philydraceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. Such a family has not been recognized by many taxonomists.The APG II system, of 2003 , does recognize such a family and places it in the order Commelinales, in the clade commelinids, in the monocots...
, and Pontederiaceae
Pontederiaceae
Pontederiaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants.The APG II system, of 2003 places the family in the order Commelinales, in the commelinid clade, in the monocots. It is a small family of heterostylous aquatic plants, occurring in tropical and subtropical waters...
. All the families combined contain over 800 species in about 70 genera
Genera
Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...
; the majority of species are in the Commelinaceae
Commelinaceae
Commelinaceae is a family of flowering plants. In less formal contexts, the group is referred to as the dayflower family or spiderwort family. It is one of five families in the order Commelinales and by far the largest of these with an estimated 650 species in 40 genera. Well known genera include...
. Plants in the order share a number of synapomorphies that tie them together, such as a lack of mycorrhizal associations
Mycorrhiza
A mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a fungus and the roots of a vascular plant....
and tapetal
Tapetum (botany)
The tapetum is a layer of cells that is found within the pollen sac, a nutritive tissue within the sporangium, particularly within the anther. Tapetum is important for the development of pollen grains. The cells are usually bigger and normally have 2 nuclei per cell...
raphides
Raphides
Raphides are needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate as the monohydrate or calcium carbonate as aragonite, found in more than 200 families of plants.Both ends are needle-like, but raphides tend to be more blunt at one end and more tapering at the other....
. Estimates differ as to when the Comminales evolved, but most suggest an origin and diversification sometime during the mid- to late Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
. Depending on the methods used, studies suggest a range of origin between 123 to 73 million years, with diversification occurring within the group 110 to 66 million years ago. The order's closest relatives are in the Zingiberales
Zingiberales
Zingiberales is an order of flowering plants. The order has been widely recognised by the taxonomists, at least for the past few decades. This order includes many familiar plants like ginger, cardamom, turmeric, galangal and myoga of the Zingiberaceae or ginger family, and bananas and plantains...
, which includes ginger
Ginger
Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
, banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
s, cardamom
Cardamom
Cardamom refers to several plants of the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to India and Bhutan; they are recognised by their small seed pod, triangular in cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a thin papery outer shell and small black seeds...
, and others.
According to the most recent classification scheme, the APG III
APG III system
The APG III system of flowering plant classification is the third version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy...
of 2009, the order includes five families: Commelinaceae
Commelinaceae
Commelinaceae is a family of flowering plants. In less formal contexts, the group is referred to as the dayflower family or spiderwort family. It is one of five families in the order Commelinales and by far the largest of these with an estimated 650 species in 40 genera. Well known genera include...
, Haemodoraceae
Haemodoraceae
Haemodoraceae is a family of flowering plants. It is sometimes known as the "Bloodwort family". Primarily a Southern Hemisphere family, they are found in South Africa, Australia and New Guinea, and in the Americas Haemodoraceae is a family of flowering plants. It is sometimes known as the...
, Hanguanaceae
Hanguanaceae
Hanguanaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. Such a family has not been recognized by many taxonomists.The APG II system, of 2003 does recognize such a family and places it in the order Commelinales, in the clade commelinids, in the monocots...
, Philydraceae
Philydraceae
Philydraceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. Such a family has not been recognized by many taxonomists.The APG II system, of 2003 , does recognize such a family and places it in the order Commelinales, in the clade commelinids, in the monocots...
, and Pontederiaceae
Pontederiaceae
Pontederiaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants.The APG II system, of 2003 places the family in the order Commelinales, in the commelinid clade, in the monocots. It is a small family of heterostylous aquatic plants, occurring in tropical and subtropical waters...
. This is unchanged from the APG II
APG II system
The APG 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 Group. It was a revision of the first APG system, published in 1998, and was superseded in 2009...
of 2003, but different from the older APG system
APG system
The APG system of plant classification is the first, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy that was published in 1998 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. It was superseded in 2003 by a revision, the APG II system, and then in 2009 by a further...
of 1998, which did not include Hanguanaceae
Hanguanaceae
Hanguanaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. Such a family has not been recognized by many taxonomists.The APG II system, of 2003 does recognize such a family and places it in the order Commelinales, in the clade commelinids, in the monocots...
. The still older Cronquist system
Cronquist system
The Cronquist system is a taxonomic classification system of flowering plants. It was developed by Arthur Cronquist in his texts An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants and The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants .Cronquist's system places flowering plants into two...
of 1981, which was not based on molecular data, placed the order in subclass Commelinidae
Commelinidae
Commelinidae is a botanical name at the rank of subclass. Circumscription of the subclass will vary with the taxonomic system being used ; the only requirement being that it includes the family Commelinaceae...
of class Liliopsida
Liliopsida
Liliopsida is a botanical name for the class containing the family Liliaceae . It is considered synonymous with the name monocotyledon. Publication of the name is credited to Scopoli : see author citation...
and included the families Commelinaceae
Commelinaceae
Commelinaceae is a family of flowering plants. In less formal contexts, the group is referred to as the dayflower family or spiderwort family. It is one of five families in the order Commelinales and by far the largest of these with an estimated 650 species in 40 genera. Well known genera include...
, Mayacaceae
Mayacaceae
Mayaca is a genus of flowering plants, often placed in its own family, the Mayacaceae. In the APG II system of 2003, it is assigned to the Order Poales in the clade commelinids. The Cronquist system, of 1981, also recognised such a family and placed it in the order Commelinales in the subclass...
, Rapateaceae
Rapateaceae
Rapateaceae is the botanical name for a family of flowering plants. Such a family has been recognized by most taxonomists.The APG II system, of 2003 also recognizes this family, and assigns it to the order Poales in the clade commelinids, in the monocots...
and Xyridaceae
Xyridaceae
Xyridaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. Such a family has been recognized by many taxonomists and is known as the Yellow-eyed-grass Family....
. These families are now known to be only distantly related.