Ericales

Ericales
Rhododendron simsii
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Bercht. & J.Presl[1]
Families

The Ericales are a large and diverse order of dicotyledons. Species in this order have considerable commercial importance including for tea, persimmon, blueberry, kiwifruit, Brazil nuts, argan, cranberry, sapote, and azalea. The order includes trees, bushes, lianas, and herbaceous plants. Together with ordinary autophytic plants, the Ericales include chlorophyll-deficient mycoheterotrophic plants (e.g., Sarcodes sanguinea) and carnivorous plants (e.g., genus Sarracenia).

Many species have five petals, often grown together. Fusion of the petals as a trait was traditionally used to place the order in the subclass Sympetalae.[2]

Mycorrhizal associations are quite common among the order representatives, and three kinds of mycorrhiza are found exclusively among Ericales (namely, ericoid, arbutoid and monotropoid mycorrhiza). In addition, some families among the order are notable for their exceptional ability to accumulate aluminum.[3]

Ericales are a cosmopolitan order. Areas of distribution of families vary largely – while some are restricted to tropics, others exist mainly in Arctic or temperate regions. The entire order contains over 8,000 species, of which the Ericaceae account for 2,000–4,000 species (by various estimates).

According to molecular studies, the lineage that led to Ericales diverged from other plants about 127 million years[4] or diversified 110 million years ago.[5]

  1. ^ Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (2): 105–121. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x. hdl:10654/18083.
  2. ^ Robyns, W. (31 December 1972). "Outline of a New System of Orders and Families of Sympetalae". Bulletin du Jardin Botanique National de Belgique. 42 (4): 363–372. doi:10.2307/3667661. JSTOR 3667661.
  3. ^ (Jansen et al., 2004).
  4. ^ Bremer, K.; Friis, E. M.; Bremer, B. (2004). "Molecular phylogenetic dating of asterid flowering plants shows early Cretaceous diversification". Systematic Biology. 53 (3): 496–505. doi:10.1080/10635150490445913. ISSN 1063-5157. PMID 15503676.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference rose2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).