List of commelinid families

The commelinids are a group of 29 interrelated families of flowering plants, named for one of the four included orders, Commelinales.^[a] This subgroup of the monocots accounts for most of the global agricultural output; the grass family alone contains the major cereal grains (including rice, wheat, and maize or corn), along with forage grasses, sugar cane, and bamboo. The palm, banana, ginger, pineapple and sedge families are also commelinids.^[5][6][7]

Traits common to most commelinids include partially fluorescent cell walls, starchy seeds and an extra layer of epidermal wax. Like other monocots, they usually have a single embryonic leaf (cotyledon) in their seeds, scattered vascular systems, leaves with parallel veins, flowers with parts in threes or multiples of three, and roots that can develop in more than one place along the stems.^[8] These plants are found worldwide, even in mainland Antarctica; two species of grass are the only vascular plants found there.^[9]

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