Friedrich von Berchtold

The Arecaceae are a family of perennial, flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are colloquially called palm trees. Currently, 181 genera with around 2,600 species are known, most of which are restricted to tropical and subtropical climates. Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen leaves, known as fronds, arranged at the top of an unbranched stem, except for the Hyphaene genus, which has branched palms. However, palms exhibit an

Asteraceae ( ) is a large family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger family is unclear as the number of extant species in each family is unknown. The Asteraceae were first described in the year 1740 and given the original name Compositae. The family is commonly known as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family. Most species of Asteraceae are herbaceous plants, and may be annual, biennial, or perennial, but there are

Rosales (, roh-ZAY-leez) are an order of flowering plants. Well-known members of Rosales include: roses, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries, apples, cherries, pears, plums, peaches and apricots, almonds, rowan and hawthorn, jujube, elms, banyans, figs, mulberries, breadfruit, nettles, hops, and cannabis. Rosales contain about 7,700 species, distributed into nine families and about 260 genera. Their type family is the rose family, Rosaceae. The largest families are Rosaceae (91/4828) and Urticaceae (53/2625).

Caryophyllales ( KARR-ee-oh-fih-LAY-leez) is a diverse and heterogeneous order of flowering plants which includes well-known species such as cacti, carnations, beets, quinoa, spinach, amaranths, pigfaces and ice plants, oraches and saltbushes, goosefoots, sundews, Venus flytrap, tropical pitcher plants, Malabar spinach, bougainvilleas, four o'clock flowers, buckwheat, knotweeds, rhubarb, sorrels, purslanes, jojoba, and tamarisks. Many members are succulent, having fleshy stems or leaves. The production of betalain pigments is unique to members of this order, occurring in all core families –

The Solanales are an order of flowering plants, included in the asterid group of the eudicots. Well-known members of Solanales include potatoes, sweet potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes, chili peppers, tobacco, petunias, nightshades, and morning glory. Some older sources used the name Polemoniales for this order.

Sapindales is an order of flowering plants that diversified in the mid-Cretaceous. Well-known members of Sapindales include citrus; maples, sumac, horse-chestnuts, lychees and rambutans; mangos and cashews; frankincense and myrrh; mahogany and neem. The APG III system of 2009 includes it in the clade malvids (in rosids, in eudicots) with the following nine families: Anacardiaceae Biebersteiniaceae Burseraceae Kirkiaceae Meliaceae Nitrariaceae (including Peganaceae and Tetradiclidaceae) Rutaceae Sapindaceae Simaroubaceae The APG II system of 2003 allowed the optional segregation of families

The Malpighiales comprise one of the largest orders of flowering plants. The order is very diverse, with well-known members including willows, violets, poplars, corpse flower, coca plant, cassava, rubber tree, castor bean, spurges, flaxseed, Saint John's wort, passionfruit, mangosteen, and manchineel tree. The order is not part of any of the classification systems based only on plant morphology and the relationships of its diverse members can be hard to recognize except with molecular phylogenetic evidence. Molecular clock calculations estimate the origin of stem group Malpighiales at around

The Ericales are a large and diverse order of flowering plants in the asterid group of the eudicots. Well-known and economically important members of this order include tea and ornamental camellias, persimmon, ebony, blueberry, cranberry, lingonberry, huckleberry, kiwifruit, Brazil nut, argan, sapote, azaleas and rhododendrons, heather, heath, impatiens, phlox, Jacob's ladder, primroses, cyclamens, shea, sapodilla, pouterias, and trumpet pitchers. The order includes 22 families, according to the APG IV system of classification. The Ericales include trees, bushes, lianas, and herbaceous

The Myrtales are an order of flowering plants, in the malvid clade of the rosid group of dicotyledons. Well-known members of Myrtales include: myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, eucalyptus, crape myrtles, henna tree, pomegranate, water caltrop, loosestrifes, cupheas (cigar plants), evening primroses, fuchsias, willowherbs, white mangrove, leadwood tree, African birch, Koster's curse, and velvet tree.

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. More than 80% of the species in this order belong to the family Rubiaceae. Many of these flowering plants are used in traditional medicine. They have been used to treat pain, anxiety, cancers and neurological conditions. According to molecular clock calculations, the lineage that led to Gentianales split from other plants about 108 million years ago or 81 million years ago.

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 sister to the remaining members of this group; in other words, it is sister to the remaining eudicots. Widely known members include poppies, barberries, hellebores, and buttercups.

The Laurales are an order of flowering plants. They are magnoliids, related to the Magnoliales. The order includes about 2500–2800 species from 85 to 90 genera, which comprise seven families of trees and shrubs. Most of the species are tropical and subtropical, though a few genera reach the temperate zone. The best known species in this order are those of the Lauraceae (for example bay laurel, cinnamon, avocado, and Sassafras), and the ornamental shrub Calycanthus of the Calycanthaceae. The earliest lauraceous fossils are from the early Cretaceous. It is possible that the ancient origin of

The Alismatales (alismatids) are an order of flowering plants including about 4,500 species. Plants assigned to this order are mostly tropical or aquatic. Some grow in fresh water, some in marine habitats. Perhaps the most important food crop in the order is the taro plant, Colocasia esculenta.

Piperales is an order of flowering plants (4,170 recognized species). 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, the many Peperomias, pepper elder, lizard's tail, birthwort, and wild ginger. The two perianthless families Piperaceae and Saururaceae are mainly herbaceous plants possessing highly reduced flowers.

The Cucurbitales are an order of flowering plants, included in the rosid group of dicotyledons. This order mostly belongs to tropical areas, with limited presence in subtropical and temperate regions. The order includes shrubs and trees, together with many herbs and climbers. One major characteristic of the Cucurbitales is the presence of unisexual flowers, mostly pentacyclic, with thick pointed petals (whenever present). The pollination is usually performed by insects, but wind pollination is also present (in Coriariaceae and Datiscaceae). The order consists of roughly 2600 species in eight

Saxifragales is an order of flowering plants in the superrosid clade of the eudicots. It contains 15 families and around 100 genera, with nearly 2,500 species. Well-known and economically important members of this order include saxifrages (after which the order is named), blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, peonies, liquidambars, witch-hazel, Persian ironwood, katsura, jade plant, houseleeks, and water milfoil. Of the 15 families, many are small, with eight of them being monotypic (having only a single genus). The largest family is the Crassulaceae (stonecrops), a diverse group of

The Cornaceae, the dogwood family, are a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants in the order Cornales. The family contains approximately 85 species in two genera, Alangium and Cornus. They are mostly trees and shrubs, which may be deciduous or evergreen, although a few species are perennial herbs. Members of the family usually have opposite or alternate simple leaves, four- or five-parted flowers clustered in inflorescences or pseudanthia, and drupaceous fruits. The family is primarily distributed in northern temperate regions and tropical Asia. In northern temperate areas, Cornaceae are

The Dipsacales are an order of flowering plants, included within the asterid group of dicotyledons. In the APG III system of 2009, the order includes only two families, Adoxaceae and a broadly defined Caprifoliaceae. Some well-known members of the Dipsacales order are honeysuckle, elder, viburnum, and valerian. Under the Cronquist system, the order included Adoxaceae, Caprifoliaceae sensu stricto, Dipsacaceae, and Valerianaceae. Under the 2003 APG II system, the circumscription of the order was much the same but the system allowed either a broadly circumscribed Caprifoliaceae including the

Cycads —constituting the division Cycadophyta—are seed plants with a stout, woody cylindrical trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and usually pinnate (feather-shaped) leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or female. Cycads vary in size from having trunks only a few centimeters to several meters tall. They typically grow slowly and have long lifespans. They superficially resemble palms or ferns, but are not closely related to either group. Cycads are gymnosperms. Cycads have specialized pollinators, usually a specific beetle,

Geraniales is a small order of flowering plants, included within the rosid subclade of eudicots. The largest family in the order is Geraniaceae with over 800 species. In addition, the order includes the smaller Francoaceae with about 40 species. Most Geraniales are herbaceous, but there are also shrubs and small trees. Flower morphology of the Geraniales is rather conserved. They are usually perfectly pentamerous and pentacyclic without fused organs besides the carpels of the superior gynoecium. The androecium is obdiplostemonous. Only a few genera are tetramerous (Francoa, Dimorphopetalum,

Proteales is an order of flowering plants consisting of three (or four) families. The Proteales have been recognized by almost all taxonomists. The representatives of the Proteales can be very different from each other due to their very early divergence. They possess seeds with little or no endosperm. The ovules are often atropic. The oldest fossils of Proteales are of the nelumbonaceous genus Notocyamus from the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous of Brazil, 126–121 Ma (million years ago). According to molecular clock calculations, the lineage that led to Proteales split from other

Oxalidales is an order of flowering plants, included within the rosid subgroup of eudicots. This group comprises seven families that contain approximately 2000 species in 58 genera. They are trees, shrubs or woody vines which are found in the wet tropics, particularly on mountains, and warm temperate zones, especially in the southern hemisphere. Compound leaves are common in Oxalidales and the majority of the species in this order have five or six sepals and petals. The following families are typically placed here: Family Brunelliaceae Family Cephalotaceae (Cephalotus follicularis) Family

The Santalales are an order of flowering plants of eudicots. Well-known members of the Santalales include sandalwoods and the many species of mistletoes. The order has a cosmopolitan distribution, but is heavily concentrated in tropical and subtropical regions. It derives its name from its type genus, Santalum (sandalwood).

The Nymphaeales are an order of flowering plants, consisting of three families of aquatic plants, the Hydatellaceae, the Cabombaceae, and the Nymphaeaceae (water lilies). It is one of the three orders of basal angiosperms, an early-diverging grade of flowering plants. At least 10 morphological characters unite the Nymphaeales. One of the traits is the absence of a vascular cambium, which is required to produce both xylem (wood) and phloem, which therefore are missing. Molecular synapomorphies are also known. The Plant List, created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical

Commelinales is an order of flowering plants. It comprises five families: Commelinaceae, Haemodoraceae, Hanguanaceae, Philydraceae, and Pontederiaceae. All the families combined contain over 885 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 Commelinales evolved, but most suggest an origin and diversification sometime during the mid- to late Cretaceous. Depending on the methods used, studies

The Potamogetonaceae, commonly referred to as the pondweed family, is an aquatic family of monocotyledonous flowering plants. The roughly 110 known species are divided over five genera. The largest genus in the family by far is Potamogeton, which contains about 100 species. The family has a subcosmopolitan distribution, and is considered to be one of the most important angiosperm groups in the aquatic environment because of its use as food and habitat for aquatic animals.

Pandanales, the pandans or screw-pines, is an order of flowering plants placed in the monocot clade in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group and Angiosperm Phylogeny Web systems. Within the monocots Pandanales are grouped in the lilioid monocots where they are in a sister group relationship with the Dioscoreales. Historically the order has consisted of a number of different families in different systems but modern classification of the order is based primarily on molecular phylogenetics despite diverse morphology which previously placed many of the families in other groupings based on apparent

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.

The Marcgraviaceae are a neotropical angiosperm family in the order Ericales. The members of the family are shrubs, woody epiphytes, and lianas, with alternate, pinnately nerved leaves. The flowers are arranged in racemes. The flowers are accompanied by modified, fleshy, saccate bracts which produce nectar. The flowers are pentamerous. The fruits are capsules.

Marchantiales is an order of thallose liverworts (also known as "complex thalloid liverworts") that includes species like Marchantia polymorpha, a widespread plant often found beside rivers, and Lunularia cruciata, a common and often troublesome weed in moist, temperate gardens and greenhouses. As in other bryophytes, the gametophyte generation is dominant, with the sporophyte existing as a short-lived part of the life cycle, dependent upon the gametophyte. The genus Marchantia is often used to typify the order, although there are also many species of Asterella and species of the genus Riccia