Commelinales

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Monocots
Cladus: Commelinids
Ordo: Commelinales
Familiae: Commelinaceae – Haemodoraceae – Hanguanaceae – Philydraceae – Pontederiaceae

Name

Commelinales Mirb. ex Bercht. & J.Presl (1820)
Synonyms

Haemodorales Martius
Hanguanales R.Dahlgren ex Reveal (1992)
Phliydrales Doumort. (1829)
Pontederiales Hook.f. (1873)

References

Berchtold, F. & Presl, J. S. 1820. O Přirozenosti Rostlin, aneb Rostlinář 267. As Commelinariae.
Saarela, J.M., Prentis, P.J., Rai, H.S., & Graham, S.W. 2008. Phylogenetic relatiionshps in the monocot order Commelinales, with a focus on Philydraceae. Botany 86: 719–731.
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. 2009. An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 161(2): 105–121. DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x Open access Reference page.
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. 2016. An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 181(1): 1–20. DOI: 10.1111/boj.12385 Reference page.
Stevens, P.F. 2001 onwards. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 14, July 2017 [and more or less continuously updated since]. Online. Reference page.
Tropicos.org 2013. Commelinales. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2013 Sept. 16.
Zuntini, A.R., Frankel, L.P., Pokorny, L., Forest, F. & Baker, W.J. 2021. A comprehensive phylogenomic study of the monocot order Commelinales, with a new classification of Commelinaceae. American Journal of Botany 108(7): 1066–1086. DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.1698 Open access Reference page.

Vernacular names
беларуская: Камелінакветныя
magyar: Kommelínavirágúak
日本語: ツユクサ目
中文: 鸭跖草目

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 suggest a range of origin between 123 and 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, bananas, cardamom, and others.[2]
Taxonomy

According to the most recent classification scheme, the APG IV of 2016, the order includes five families:[3]

Commelinaceae
Haemodoraceae
Hanguanaceae
Philydraceae
Pontederiaceae

This is unchanged from the APG III of 2009 and the APG II of 2003, but different from the older APG system of 1998, which did not include Hanguanaceae.
Previous classification systems

The older Cronquist system of 1981, which was based purely on morphological 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.[4][1] In the classification system of Dahlgren the Commelinales were one of four orders in the superorder Commeliniflorae (also called Commelinanae), and contained five families, of which only Commelinaceae has been retained by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG).
References

Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (2): 105–121. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x.
Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, November 2011.
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2016). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 181 (1): 1–20. doi:10.1111/boj.12385. ISSN 0024-4074.
The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. 2003 An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG II. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 141: 399-436.