The anthophytes are a

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

grouping of plant taxa bearing flower-like reproductive structures. The group, once thought to be a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

, contained the angiosperms – the extant flowering plants, such as roses and grasses – as well as the

Gnetales Gnetophyta () is a division of plants (alternatively considered the subclass Gnetidae or order Gnetales), grouped within the gymnosperms (which also includes conifers, cycads, and ginkgos), that consists of some 70 species across the three Relict ...

and the extinct Bennettitales. Detailed morphological and molecular studies have shown that the group is not actually

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

, with proposed floral homologies of the gnetophytes and the

angiosperm Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit ...

s having evolved in parallel. This makes it easier to reconcile molecular clock data that suggests that the angiosperms diverged from the

gymnosperm The gymnosperms ( ; ) are a group of woody, perennial Seed plant, seed-producing plants, typically lacking the protective outer covering which surrounds the seeds in flowering plants, that include Pinophyta, conifers, cycads, Ginkgo, and gnetoph ...

s around 320-300 mya. Some more recent studies have used the word anthophyte to describe a hypothetical group which includes the angiosperms and a variety of extinct seed plant groups (with various suggestions including at least some of the following groups: glossopterids, corystosperms, Petriellales Pentoxylales, Bennettitales and Caytoniales), but not the Gnetales.

References

{{Reflist Historically recognized plant taxa