Macarthuriaceae is a family of plants in the order

Caryophyllales Caryophyllales ( ) is a diverse and heterogeneous order of flowering plants with well-known members including cacti, carnations, beets, quinoa, spinach, amaranths, pigfaces and ice plants, oraches and saltbushes, goosefoots, sundews, Venu ...

and consists of a single genus, '' Macarthuria''.

Description

Macarthuriaceae are rigid or wiry, rush-like herbs or subshrubs with green stems and reduced leaves. The small flowers have five perianth members, sometimes also five "petals", and eight stamens fused at the base.

Taxonomy

In 2009, '' Macarthuria'' was placed with '' Limeum'' in the Limeaceae, based on its morphology, but at that time no molecular material of '' Macarthuria'' had been examined. Prior to this, Endress and Bittrich had placed it in the family

Molluginaceae The Molluginaceae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants recognized by several taxonomists. It was previously included in the larger family Aizoaceae. The APG III system of 2009 made no change in the status of the family as compared ...

. However, in 2011, molecular evidence was published, showing that '' Macarthuria'' is sister to all core

. Thus, '' Macarthuria'' needed to be placed in a family of its own, Macarthuriaceae.

References

Caryophyllales Caryophyllales families Monogeneric plant families Taxa named by Maarten J. M. Christenhusz {{Caryophyllales-stub