Caryophyllidae

(botany) A relatively small subclass of plants in the class Magnoliopsida characterized by trinucleate pollen, ovules with two integuments, and a multilayered nucellus.

A relatively small subclass of the class Magnoliopsida (dicotyledons) of the division Magnoliophyta (Angiospermae), the flowering plants, consisting of 3 orders, 14 families, and about 11,000 species. Most of these plants contain betalain pigments instead of anthocyanins, and the seeds very often have a perisperm. Most of the families and species of the subclass belong to the order Caryophyllales. The other orders (Plumbaginales and Polygonales) have only a single family each. See also Caryophyllales; Magnoliophyta; Magnoliopsida; Plant kingdom; Plumbaginales; Polygonales.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a group of families of mostly flowers having basal or free-central placentation and trinucleate pollen (binucleate pollen is commoner in flowering plants); contains 14 families including: Caryophyllaceae (carnations and pinks); Aizoaceae; Amaranthaceae; Batidaceae; Chenopodiaceae; Cactaceae (order Opuntiales); Nyctaginaceae; Phytolaccaceae; corresponds approximately to order Caryophyllales; sometimes classified as a superorder
  Synonym: subclass Caryophyllidae

Caryophyllidae is a botanical name at the rank of subclass. At the moment there is no complete consensus about what orders it includes, except that it presumably contains the order Caryophyllales. Note that this is only a naming difficulty: what to call various taxa of plants; there is little debate about how the plants in question are related.

A well-known system that did use this name is the Cronquist system, and in the original, 1981, version of this system the circumscription was:

• subclass Caryophyllidae

  order Caryophyllales

  order Polygonales

  order Plumbaginales

By and large, these plants form the order Caryophyllales in the APG II system, 2003.

This plant article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)