Fabales is an
order of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...
s included in the
rosid group of the
eudicots in the
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II classification system. In the APG II circumscription, this order includes the families
Fabaceae
Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,[International Code of Nomen ...](_blank)
or legumes (including the subfamilies
Caesalpinioideae,
Mimosoideae, and
Faboideae
The Faboideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. An acceptable alternative name for the subfamily is Papilionoideae, or Papilionaceae when this group of plants is treated as a family.
This subfamily is widely ...
),
Quillajaceae,
Polygalaceae or milkworts (including the families
Diclidantheraceae,
Moutabeaceae, and
Xanthophyllaceae), and
Surianaceae. Under the
Cronquist system
The Cronquist system is a list of systems of plant taxonomy, taxonomic classification system of angiosperms, flowering plants. It was developed by Arthur Cronquist in a series of monographs and texts, including ''The Evolution and Classification of ...
and some other plant classification systems, the order Fabales contains only the family Fabaceae. In the classification system of
Dahlgren the Fabales were in the
superorder Fabiflorae (also called Fabanae) with three families corresponding to the subfamilies of Fabaceae in APG II. The other families treated in the Fabales by the APG II classification were placed in separate orders by Cronquist, the Polygalaceae within its own order, the
Polygalales, and the Quillajaceae and Surianaceae within the
Rosales.
The Fabaceae, as the third-largest plant family in the world, contain most of the diversity of the Fabales, the other families making up a comparatively small portion of the order's diversity. Research in the order is largely focused on the Fabaceae, due in part to its great biological diversity, and to its importance as food plants. The Polygalaceae are fairly well researched among plant families, in part due to the large diversity of the genus ''
Polygala'', and other members of the family being food plants for various
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...
(
butterfly
Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...
and
moth
Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...
) species. While taxonomists using
molecular phylogenetic techniques find strong support for the order, questions remain about the morphological relationships of the Quillajaceae and Surianaceae to the rest of the order, due in part to limited research on these families.
According to
molecular clock calculations, the lineage that led to Fabales split from other plants about 101 million years ago.
Distribution
The Fabales are a
cosmopolitan order of plants, except only the subfamily
Papilionoideae (Faboideae) of the Fabaceae are well dispersed throughout the northern part of the
North Temperate Zone.
Phylogeny
The
phylogeny
A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or Taxon, taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, M ...
of the Fabales is shown below.
Gallery
File:Desmodium gangeticum 2 W IMG 2769.jpg, '' Pleurolobus gangeticus''
Image:Lathyrus tuberosa (Guixa).jpg, Tuberous pea ('' Lathyrus tuberosus'') of the Fabaceae
Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,[International Code of Nomen ...](_blank)
Image:Quillaja saponaria.jpg, Soap bark tree ('' Quillaja saponaria'') of the Quillajaceae
Image:Polygala myrtifolia0.jpg, Milkwort (''Polygala myrtifolia'') of the Polygalaceae
File:Polygala elongata in Talakona, AP I IMG 8388.jpg, Milkwort (''Polygala elongata'') of the Polygalaceae
Image:Suriana maritima flowers.JPG, Bay cedar ('' Suriana maritima'' of the Surianaceae
References
{{Authority control
Angiosperm orders