The rosids are members of a large

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 ...

(

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 ...

group) 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, containing about 70,000

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

, more than a quarter of all angiosperms. The clade is divided into 16 to 20 orders, depending upon circumscription and

classification Classification is the activity of assigning objects to some pre-existing classes or categories. This is distinct from the task of establishing the classes themselves (for example through cluster analysis). Examples include diagnostic tests, identif ...

. These orders, in turn, together comprise about 140 families. Fossil rosids are known from the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

period. Molecular clock estimates indicate that the rosids may have originated in the

Aptian The Aptian is an age (geology), age in the geologic timescale or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early or Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), S ...

Albian The Albian is both an age (geology), age of the geologic timescale and a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early/Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch/s ...

stages of the

, between 125 and 99.6 million years ago. Today's broadleaved forests are dominated by rosid species, which in turn help with diversification in many other living lineages. Additionally, rosid herbs and shrubs are a significant part of arctic/alpine and temperate floras. The clade also includes some aquatic, desert and parasitic plants.

Name

The name is based upon the name " Rosidae", which had usually been understood to be a subclass. In 1967,

Armen Takhtajan Armen Leonovich Takhtajan or Takhtajian (; surname also transliterated Takhtadjan, Takhtadzhi︠a︡n or Takhtadzhian, pronounced takh-tuh-JAHN; 10 June 1910 – 13 November 2009), was a Soviet- Armenian botanist, one of the most important fi ...

showed that the correct basis for the name "Rosidae" is a description of a group of plants published in 1830 by Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling. The clade was later renamed "Rosidae" and has been variously delimited by different authors. The name "rosids" is informal and not assumed to have any particular

taxonomic rank In biology, taxonomic rank (which some authors prefer to call nomenclatural rank because ranking is part of nomenclature rather than taxonomy proper, according to some definitions of these terms) is the relative or absolute level of a group of or ...

like the names authorized by the ICBN. The rosids are

based upon evidence found by molecular phylogenetic analysis.

Relationships

The rosids and Saxifragales form the superrosids clade. This is one of three groups that comprise the Pentapetalae ( core eudicots minus Gunnerales), the others being Dilleniales and the superasterids ( Berberidopsidales, Caryophyllales, Santalales, and asterids).

Classification

Three different definitions of the rosids were used. Some authors included the orders

Saxifragales Saxifragales is an order (biology), order of flowering plants in the Superrosids, superrosid clade of the eudicots. It contains 15 Families (biology), families and around 100 genera, with nearly 2,500 species. Well-known and economically import ...

and Vitales in the rosids. Others excluded both of these orders. The circumscription used in this article is that of the APG IV classification, which includes Vitales, but excludes Saxifragales. Thus, the rosids consist of two groups: the order Vitales and the eurosids. The eurosids, in turn, are divided into two groups: fabids (Fabidae, eurosids I) and malvids (Malvidae, eurosids II).

Orders

The rosids consist of 17 orders. In addition to Vitales, there are eight orders in fabids and eight orders in malvids. Some of the orders have only recently been recognized. These are Vitales, Zygophyllales, Crossosomatales, Picramniales, and Huerteales.

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 rosids shown below is adapted from the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. The ''nitrogen-fixing clade'' contains a high number of actinorhizal plants (which have root nodules containing nitrogen fixing bacteria, helping the plant grow in poor soils). Not all plants in this clade are actinorhizal, however.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q338878 Superrosids Extant Cretaceous first appearances Plant unranked clades