1. Rosids – Malvids: Myrtales - Brassicales - Malvales - Sapindales
Spring 2012

2. Fig. 8.30

3. Core Eudicots: Rosids-Malvids
Order Myrtales
Myrtaceae – Eucalyptus
Onagraceae – Evening primroses
Order Brassicales
Brassicaceae* – Mustards
Order Malvales
Malvaceae* – Mallows, cotton, chocolate
Order Sapindales
Sapindaceae* – Maples, lychee
Rutaceae – Citrus
*family required for recognition

4. Rosids-Malvids: Myrtales: Myrtaceae (The Eucalyptus or Myrtle Family)
Pantropical; highly diverse in warm temperate Australia
Trees or shrubs often with flaky bark
Diversity: 4,600-5,500 species in 144 genera
Flowers: Hypanthium well developed; sepals and petals 4-5; stamens usually numerous; carpels 2-5, connate; ovary inferior to half-inferior; fruit usually a 1-many seeded berry or loculicidal capsule
Significant features: Highly aromatic leaves & stems due to many terpenoid and resinous compounds; leaves entire with scattered pellucid dots containing these compounds
Special uses: Eucalyptus important source of timber; many used as ornamentals; cloves (Syzygium aromaticum), allspice (Pimenta dioica); guava (Psidium guajava)
Family not required

5. Myrtaceae: Eucalyptus
Foliage dimorphic (juvenile leaves are rounded & stem-clasping; adult leaves are longer, willowy, and petioled)
Flower buds covered by an operculum (fused sepals or petals or both) that falls off at anthesis
Fruit a conical capsule (gumnut)
Primarily Australian;
ca. 800 species,
some cultivated
in the U.S.

6. Rosids-Malvids: Myrtales: Onagraceae (The Evening Primrose Family)
Widely distributed, primarily in western North America and South America
Mostly herbs, some shrubs, trees
Diversity: ca. 650 species in genera
Flowers: Showy; sepals & petals (2-) 4 (-7); stamens (4) 8, not incurved in bud, pollen with viscin threads; carpels usually 4; ovary inferior; long hypanthium; cruciform stigmas; fruit is a loculicidal capsule or berry
Significant features: Tetramerous flowers!!
Special uses: Several ornamental herbs
Family not required

7. Onagraceae:
Clarkia!

8. Onagraceae: Oenothera
Herbaceous
Leaves usually alternate
Hypanthium prolonged beyond the ovary
Corolla usually yellow (can be white or pink)
Fruit a loculicidal capsule with many seeds or nut-like, indehiscent and few-seeded
Seeds naked

9. Onagraceae: Oenothera
Oenothera speciosa

10. Rosids-Malvids: Brassicales: Brassicaceae (‘Cruciferae’ - The Mustard Family)
Cosmopolitan, most diverse in the Mediterranean region, SW Asia, and western North America
Herbs, shrubs or trees; (sometimes herbs); glucosinolates (mustard oils) present in all taxa
Diversity: 3,400-3,700 species in genera
Flowers: Sepals 4; petals 4 (cruciform), often clawed; stamens 6, all + equal or usually 2 shorter and 4 longer (tetradynamous); carpels usually 2, connate, superior ovary; fruit a capsule, usually dehiscing by splitting into 2 valves leaving a persistent cross-wall, a silique or silicle
Significant features: 4-merous flowers; often pioneers after disturbance
Special uses: Many important food plants – cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea), turnip (Brassica rapa), mustards (Brassica spp.), horseradish (Armoracia rusticana), and a wide range of ornamentals
Required taxa: Brassica

11. Brassicaceae clawed petals tetradynamous stamens cruciform petals
silique - silicle

12. Arabidopsis thaliana
The model plant of
choice for much of
molecular biology.

13. Brassicaceae: Brassica
-annuals or biennials
-at least the lower leaves
deeply pinnatifid, lyrate
or pinnate
-racemes without bracts
-sepals erect during anthesis
-petals yellow
-ovary and silique with a
prominent beak

14. Brassica
oleracea

15. Rosids-Malvids: Malvales: Malvaceae (The Mallow Family)
Cosmopolitan
Trees, shrubs, lianas or herbs; vegetative parts with mucilage; leaves often palmately veined and lobed (may be pinnately veined) or palmately compound; stellate hairs
Diversity: 4,200 species in ca. 250 genera
Flowers: Sepals & petals 5, calyx valvate; stamens 5 to many, monadelphous or polydelphous; carpels 2 to many, connate, superior ovary; fruit usually a loculicidal capsule, also berry, samara, schizocarp, or drupe
Significant features: basic inflorescence unit a modified, 3-bracted cyme; flowers often associated with conspicuous bracts forming an epicalyx; nectaries of densely packed, multicellular glandular hairs, usually on sepals
Special uses: cotton (Gossypium), cacao or chocolate (Theobroma), durian (Durio), balsa wood (Ochroma); many ornamentals, e.g. hibiscus (Hibiscus)
Required taxa: Hibiscus, Gossypium

16. Malvaceae
Monadelphous stamens
Polydelphous stamens

17. Theobroma cacao

18. Malvaceae: Hibiscus -herbs or shrubs -epicalyx of a circle
of several bractlets
-filament column
bearing anthers for
much of its length
-styles distinct
-fruit a 5-locular
loculicidal capsule
-seeds 2-several per
locule, kidney-shaped

19. Malvaceae: Gossypium -subshrubs to shrubs -epicalyx of 3-5-7 large,
cordate, toothed bracts
-styles united
-fruit a 3-5-locular
loculicidal capsule
-seeds + globular, often
with hair (lint)

20. Rosids-Malvids: Sapindales: Sapindaceae (The Maple Family)
Mainly tropical and subtropical, a few diverse in the temperate zone (e.g., Acer, Aesculus)
Trees, shrubs or lianas with tendrils
Diversity: 1,450-1,580 species in genera
Flowers: Unisexual or bisexual; sepals & petals 4-5, petals often clawed, with more or less basal appendages adaxially; usually an extrastaminal nectar disk present; stamens 8 or fewer (rarely up to 12), filaments usually hairy or papillose; carpels 2 or 3, connate, superior ovary; fruit a capsule, berry, or schizocarp; seeds with a deep fold or pocket in the seed coat
Significant features: presence of saponins in many
Special uses: lumber, maple syrup (Acer saccharum); many ornamentals; tropical fruits (longan, lychee, rambutan)
Required taxa: Acer

21. Sapindaceae: Acer -trees or sometimes shrubs
-leaves opposite, simple and
palmately lobed, rarely pinnately
or palmately compound
-calyx usually 5-lobed
-petals 0 or as many as the calyx lobes
-ovary with 2 connate, winged carpels,
2 ovules per carpel
-fruit a schizocarp, splitting into 2
samaroid mericarps
Some treatments retain this as Aceraceae!

22. Rosids-Malvids: Sapindales: Rutaceae (The Citrus Family)
Nearly cosmopolitan, primarily tropical to subtropical
Trees or shrubs, sometimes with thorns, spines or prickles
Diversity: 1,800-1,900 species in genera
Flowers: Sepals & petals 4 – 5; stamens 8-10; annular nectar disk; carpels 4-5 to many, connate, superior ovary; axile placentation; fruit a drupe, capsule, samara, cluster of follicles or modified berry with leathery, glandular rind (i.e., hesperidium in Citrus).
Significant features: Aromatic oils chemically complex; simple or compound leaves with pellucid dots containing aromatic ethereal oils
Special uses: many desirable fruits - oranges, lemons, limes, tangerine, grapefruit (Citrus), kumquat (Fortunella), several ornamentals, e.g. cork tree (Phellodendron)
Family not required

23. Pellucid dots

24. Rutaceae: Citrus -leaves apparently simple, of 1 leaflet
-ovary compound, entire
or only slightly lobed
-fruit a hesperidium