Anthophyta

The anthophytes were thought to be a clade comprising plants bearing flower-like structures. The group contained the angiosperms - the extant flowering plants - as well as the Gnetales and the extinct Bennettitales. It also includes such plants as roses, tulips, and common plants found to have flower structures.

Detailed morphological and molecular studies have shown that the group is not actually monophyletic, with proposed floral homologies of the gnetophytes and the angiosperms having evolved in parallel.^[1] This makes it easier to reconcile molecular clock data that suggests that the angiosperms diverged from the gymnosperms around 300 million years ago.^[2]

Some more recent studies have used the word anthophyte to describe a group which includes the angiosperms and a variety of fossils (glossopterids, Pentoxylon, Bennettitales, and Caytonia), but not the Gnetales.^[3]

Phylogeny of anthophytes and gymnosperms, from ^[1]

References