Gentianales is an

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

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 ...

, included within the

asterid Asterids are a large clade (monophyletic group) of flowering plants, composed of 17 orders and more than 80,000 species, about a third of the total flowering plant species. The asterids are divided into the unranked clades lamiids (8 orders) and ...

clade of

eudicots The eudicots or eudicotyledons are flowering plants that have two seed leaves (cotyledons) upon germination. The term derives from ''dicotyledon'' (etymologically, ''eu'' = true; ''di'' = two; ''cotyledon'' = seed leaf). Historically, authors h ...

. It comprises more than 20,000 species in about 1,200 genera in 5 families. More than 80% of the species in this order belong to the family

Rubiaceae Rubiaceae () is a family (biology), family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with Petiole ( ...

. Many of these flowering plants are used in traditional medicine. They have been used to treat pain, anxiety, cancers and neurological conditions. According to

molecular clock The molecular clock is a figurative term for a technique that uses the mutation rate of biomolecules to deduce the time in prehistory when two or more life forms diverged. The biomolecular data used for such calculations are usually nucleot ...

calculations, the lineage that led to Gentianales split from other plants about 108 million years ago or 81 million years ago.

Taxonomy

In the classification system of Dahlgren the Gentiales were in the

superorder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized ...

Gentianiflorae (also called Gentiananae). The following families are included according to the

APG III system The APG III system of flowering plant classification is the third version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). Published in 2009, it was superseded in 2016 by a f ...

: * Family

Apocynaceae Apocynaceae (, from '' Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison. Notable mem ...

(424 genera) * Family

Gelsemiaceae Gelsemiaceae is a family of flowering plants, belonging to the Order (biology), order Gentianales. The family contains only three genera: ''Gelsemium'', ''Mostuea'' and ''Pteleocarpa''. ''Gelsemium'' has three species, one native to Southeast Asi ...

(2 genera) * Family

Gentianaceae Gentianaceae is a family of flowering plants of 105 genera and about 1600 species. Etymology The family takes its name from the genus ''Gentiana'', named after the Illyrian king Gentius. Distribution Distribution is cosmopolitan (species), cosm ...

(87 genera) * Family

Loganiaceae The Loganiaceae are a family of flowering plants classified in order Gentianales. The family includes up to 13 genera, distributed around the world's tropics. There are not any great morphological characteristics to distinguish these taxa from ot ...

(13 genera) * Family

(611 genera)

Phylogeny

The following

phylogenetic tree A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA. In ...

is based on

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies of

DNA sequence A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases within the nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. This succession is denoted by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of the nu ...

Etymology

It takes its name from the family

, which in turn is based on the name of the type genus, ''

Gentiana ''Gentiana'' () is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the gentian family (Gentianaceae), the tribe Gentianeae, and the monophyletic subtribe Gentianinae. With over 300 species, it is considered a large genus. Gentians are notable for their ...

''. The genus name is a tribute to

Gentius Gentius (, ''Génthios''; 181–168 BC) was an Illyrian king who belonged to the Labeatan dynasty. He ruled in 181–168 BC, being the last attested Illyrian king. He was the son of Pleuratus III, a king who kept positive relations with Rome. ...

, an Illyrian king.

Characteristics

This large order has a variety of different plants, ranging from small

herbaceous plants Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent wood, woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennial plant, perennials, and nearly all Annual plant, annuals and Biennial plant, biennials. Definition ...

and saprophytes to

shrubs A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

and large

trees In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only p ...

.Struwe, Lena. (2002). Gentianales (Coffees, Dogbanes, Gentians and Milkweeds)
10.1038/npg.els.0003732
Species are, however, united by their simple and opposite leaves and typically have showy pentamerous flowers (flowers in which components occur in multiples of five) and show nuclear endosperm formation (in which cell division takes place without the cell wall forming between divisions). Many species have structures between the leaf petioles, such as ridges or

stipules In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole). They are primarily found among dicots and rare among monocots. Stipules are considered part of the anatomy ...

. Many species also have colleters; thick hair-like structures that secrete

mucilage Mucilage is a thick gluey substance produced by nearly all plants and some microorganisms. These microorganisms include protists which use it for their locomotion, with the direction of their movement always opposite to that of the secretion of ...

, a thick gluey substance.

Distribution

Species of this order are found in moist climates around the world. They are most common in tropical regions.

Uses

Many gentianales contain toxic compounds and species have a variety of uses. Some species are also grown ornamentally. Well-known members of Gentianales are

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

frangipani ''Plumeria'' (), also known as frangipani, is a genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Rauvolfioideae, of the family Apocynaceae. Most species are deciduous shrubs or small trees. The species are native to the Neotropical realm (in Mexico, ...

, ''

Gardenia ''Gardenia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the coffee family, Rubiaceae, native to the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, Madagascar, Pacific Islands, and Australia. The genus was named by Carl Linnaeus and John Ellis after ...

'',

gentian ''Gentiana'' () is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the gentian family ( Gentianaceae), the tribe Gentianeae, and the monophyletic subtribe Gentianinae. With over 300 species, it is considered a large genus. Gentians are notable for thei ...

oleander ''Nerium oleander'' ( ), commonly known as oleander or rosebay, is a shrub or small tree cultivated worldwide in temperate and subtropical areas as an ornamental and landscaping plant. It is the only species currently classified in the genus ...

, and periwinkle. Certain species belonging to the order Gentianales have been used in traditional medicine in rural southeastern Asia countries. ''

Gelsemium sempervirens ''Gelsemium sempervirens'' is a twining vine in the family Gelsemiaceae, native to subtropical and tropical America: Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico (Chiapas, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo),Gelsemium elegans'' has been used in China to treat rheumatoid arthritis pain, neuropathic pain, skin ulcers, and even cancers. The compounds found in some species are used in the synthesis of modern medicines. Cinchona trees, for example, are a source of quinine, which is used to treat malaria.

Vinblastine Vinblastine, sold under the brand name Velban among others, is a chemotherapy medication, typically used with other medications, to treat a number of types of cancer. This includes Hodgkin's lymphoma, non-small-cell lung cancer, bladder canc ...

, which has anti-tumor properties as it disrupts cell division, is used in

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

. It is extracted from the

Madagascar periwinkle ''Catharanthus roseus'', commonly known as bright eyes, Cape periwinkle, graveyard plant, Madagascar periwinkle, old maid, pink periwinkle, rose periwinkle, is a perennial species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae. It is native and en ...

References

{{Authority control Angiosperm orders