Zingiberales

(botany) An order of monocotyledonous herbs or scarcely branched shrubs in the subclass Commelinidae characterized by pinnately veined leaves and irregular flowers that have well-differentiated sepals and petals, an inferior ovary, and either one or five functional stamens.

An order of flowering plants, division Magnoliophyta, in the monocots, consisting of eight families and about 1800 species. Zingiberales (also known as Scitamineae or Scitaminales) are morphologically well defined and clearly circumscribed in DNA sequence analyses. The largest families are Zingiberaceae (about 1000 species), Marantaceae (about 400 species), Costaceae (about 150 species), and Heliconiaceae (about 100 species). Zingiberales are most closely related to Commelinales.

Zingiberales are herbs or scarcely branched trees or shrubs with pinnately veined leaves and irregular flowers that have well-differentiated sepals and petals, an inferior ovary, septal or septa-derived nectaries, and usually either one or five functional stamens. The economic crops, ginger (Zingiber officinale) in Zingiberaceae and banana (Musa) in Musaceae, and the ornamentals, bird of paradise flower (Strelitzia) in Strelitziaceae and Canna in Cannaceae, are familiar members of Zingiberales. See also Banana; Commelinales; Flower; Fruit; Ginger; Liliopsida; Magnoliophyta.

Zingiberales Fossil range: 80 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓ Late Cretaceous - Recent
Alpinia zerumbet, a popular ornamental of the Zingerbaceae.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae (unranked): Angiosperms (unranked): Monocots (unranked): Commelinids Order: Zingiberales Griseb.

Zingiberales is an order of flowering plants. The order has been widely recognised by the taxonomists, at least for the past few decades. This order includes many familiar plants like ginger, cardamom, turmeric, galangal and myoga of the Zingiberaceae or ginger family, and bananas and plantains of the Musaceae or banana family, along with arrowroot of the Marantaceae or arrowroot family.

It is considered that the Zingiberales together with the Commelinales evolved around 80 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous.

The APG II system, of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system, 1998), recognises this order and assigns it to the clade commelinids, in the monocots. It is circumscribed as:

• order Zingiberales

  family Cannaceae

  family Costaceae

  family Heliconiaceae

  family Lowiaceae

  family Marantaceae

  family Musaceae

  family Strelitziaceae

  family Zingiberaceae

The Cronquist system, also recognised this order consisting of the same eight families, but organized the order in the subclass Zingiberidae of the class Liliopsida [=monocotyledons].

Earlier systems, such as the Wettstein system, last revised in 1935, and the Engler system, updated in 1964, recognised a similar order (containing the same plants, although divided over fewer families) Scitamineae.

External links

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