Cornales
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What is the Cornales plant order?
The Cornales are an order of flowering plants consisting of six families and over 590 species. Within the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III (APG III) botanical classification system, Cornales is the basalmost order of the core asterid clade, also known as the sympetalous lineage of flowering plants.
Most Cornales are woody plants whose flower parts come in multiples of four and have unfused petals. Their flowers have inferior ovaries that contain several carpels, and their fruits are fleshy with stony seeds. The major families in the order Cornales are Cornaceae, Hydrangeaceae, and Loasaceae. The remaining families, Curtisiaceae, Grubbiaceae, and Hydrostachyaceae, have only one or two genera each.
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Which kinds of plants are found in the Cornales order?
The Cornales order contains plants that are mostly woody, with flower parts appearing in multiples of four and with unjoined petals. The flowers of these plants have inferior ovaries that contain several carpels, and their fruits are fleshy with stony seeds.
The major families in the Cornales order are:
* Cornaceae
* Hydrangeaceae
* LoasaceaeThe remaining families, Curtisiaceae, Grubbiaceae, and Hydrostachyaceae, have only one or two genera each.
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Where do plants from the Cornales order usually grow?
Cornales is an order of flowering plants made up of six families and over 590 species. Plants in the Cornales order are mostly woody. Their flower parts come in multiples of four and have unjoined petals. The flowers also have inferior ovaries that hold several carpels, while the fruits are fleshy with stony seeds.
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What are some common features of Cornales plants?
Cornales, an order of flowering plants, consists mainly of woody plants with flower parts appearing in multiples of four and petals that are not joined. The flowers feature inferior ovaries containing multiple carpels, and their fruits are fleshy with stony seeds.
The dogwood family (Cornaceae) is the largest within the order, featuring woody ornamental species. For example, the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) is mainly ornamental, while the European Cornelian cherry (C. mas) produces edible fruit.
Cornales is the basalmost order of the core asterid clade within the angiosperms. Core eudicots, including Asterid orders like Cornales, typically exhibit a "5 + 5 + (5 or 10) + (3 or 5)" floral construction, referring to the arrangement of sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels.
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How do Cornales plants differ from plants in other orders?
Cornales is a dogwood order of flowering plants that consists of six families and over 590 species. Cornales is the basalmost order of the core asterid clade, or sympetalous lineage, of flowering plants. Plants in the Cornales order are mostly woody, with flower parts in multiples of four and unfused petals. The flowers have inferior ovaries that contain several carpels, while the fruits are fleshy with stony seeds.
Within the core eudicots, the petals are commonly fused in the Asterids, forming a corolla tube. There are also chemicals common in the Asterids that are very rare in any other flowering plants.
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Why are Cornales plants important to people or the environment?
Cornales is an order of flowering plants that contains six families and over 590 species. Corn is one of the world’s most productive and dominant crops and is grown for food for humans and livestock, as a biofuel, and as a raw material in industry. Many parts of the corn plant are used in industry, and some types of corn are grown primarily for industrial applications. Corn stalks are made into paper and wallboard, while corn husks are used as filling material. Corncobs can be used directly for fuel and in the preparation of industrial solvents.
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Cornales, dogwood order of flowering plants, comprising six families and more than 590 species. Cornales is the basalmost order of the core asterid clade (organisms with a single common ancestor), or sympetalous lineage of flowering plants, in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III (APG III) botanical classification system (see angiosperm). The plants in this order are mostly woody, with flower parts in multiples of four and unjoined petals. The flowers have inferior ovaries containing several carpels, and the fruits are fleshy with stony seeds. The major families are Cornaceae, Hydrangeaceae, and Loasaceae, with the remaining families Curtisiaceae, Grubbiaceae, and Hydrostachyaceae having only one or two genera each.
Cornaceae
Cornaceae, the dogwood family, is the largest family in the order, though it has just two genera—Cornus (65 species) and Alangium (20 species). Cornus is noted for its woody ornamental species native to both coasts of North America and to East Asia. Cornus florida (flowering dogwood) is chiefly ornamental, whereas the European C. mas (cornelian cherry) produces edible fruit, and C. macrophylla yields wood useful for furniture. Flowering dogwoods have small flowers surrounded by conspicuously expanded coloured bracts (specialized leaves) that are frequently mistaken for petals.
Hydrangeaceae
Members of Hydrangeaceae, the hydrangea family, are usually rather robust herbs or shrubs, with opposite leaves and a line running across the stem between opposing leaf stalks. The family includes 17 genera and 190 species, most of them in warmer temperate zones, though a few species enter the tropics. The flowers have free petals that are valvate in bud. There are at least twice as many stamens as petals, and the ovary is half to fully inferior.
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Hydrangeas (Hydrangea) are known to most gardeners as shrubs, although some are woody vines or small trees. The common hydrangea, or hortensia (H. macrophylla), is popular with horticulturists and is sold as a potted plant in cool areas. Hydrangea flowers are produced in large, showy white, blue, or pink clusters, with the flower colour of some species being related to soil acidity. The pink-flowered hortensias, for example, show a tendency to turn blue when iron filings or alum are added to the soil to increase acidity. In a number of hydrangea species, the sepals of the marginal flowers of the flower cluster are enlarged and look like petals.
Philadelphus, known as mock orange or sweet syringa, and Deutzia are two other members of the hydrangea family often grown in gardens. These shrubs and their many cultivated varieties are widely planted in shrub borders for the white flowers that appear in late spring.
Loasaceae
Members of Loasaceae, the stickleaf family, are typically coarse herbs or shrubs, often with stinging hairs. The distinctive flowers feature separate, spreading petals, numerous radiating stamens with long filaments, and inferior ovaries. The family has 14 genera and more than 260 species, most of them North American, but there are also species from South America, Africa, and the Marquesas Islands in the Pacific. The main genera are Loasa (105 species), Caiophora (65 species), and Mentzelia (60 species).
Other families
Among the smaller families in Cornales is Hydrostachyaceae, which has a single genus (Hydrostachys) of 20 species of aquatic herbs native to central and southern Africa and Madagascar. The rosette-forming leaves can be highly divided and usually have small scaly or fringed appendages. Flowers are very reduced and unisexual, tightly arranged along a spike; the male flowers have a single anther, and the female flowers have two elongate styles and form a capsule with many tiny seeds.
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The two smallest families in the order, both with a single genus, are Grubbiaceae and Curtisiaceae. Grubbia (three species) is the single genus of Grubbiaceae and features heathlike shrubs in southern South Africa. Curtisia has a single species of southern African tree that is useful as a timber source (assagai wood) for furniture and other small construction.