Which family accounts for more than 95 percent of Fabales species?
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Fabales
A flowering stalk of yellow partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) in the eastern United States.
The family that accounts for more than 95 percent of the species within the order Fabales is Fabaceae, commonly known as the legume or pea family.1
While the order Fabales comprises four distinct familiesāFabaceae, Polygalaceae, Quillajaceae, and Surianaceaeāthe vast majority of its more than 20,400 species belong to Fabaceae. This family is recognized as the third largest among angiosperms and serves as a critical source of human nutrition and sustainable agriculture due to the ability of its members to fix nitrogen in the soil.12