Sympetally (fused
petals
Petals are modified leaves that form an inner whorl surrounding the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly coloured or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''coroll ...
) is a flower characteristic that historically was used to classify a grouping of plants termed Sympetalae, but this term has been abandoned in newer molecular based classifications, although the grouping has similarity to the modern term
asterids
Asterids are a large clade (monophyly, monophyletic group) of flowering plants, composed of 17 Order_(biology), orders and more than 80,000 species, about a third of the total flowering plant species. The asterids are divided into the unranked cl ...
.
History
Sympetalae
Rchb. (1828), meaning “with fused
petals
Petals are modified leaves that form an inner whorl surrounding the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly coloured or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''coroll ...
”, is a
descriptive botanical name used in the
Eichler Several people are named Eichler:
* August W. Eichler (1839–1887), German botanist
* Caroline Eichler (1808/9–1843), German inventor, first woman to be awarded a patent (for her leg prosthesis)
* Eunice Eichler (1932–2017), New Zealand Salvat ...
,
Engler, and
Wettstein systems for a 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 (angiosperms). In this group the flowers have a separate
calyx and
corolla and in which the corolla
petal
Petals are modified leaves that form an inner whorl surrounding the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly coloured or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''corol ...
s are fused, at least at their base, a condition known as sympetally.
Prior to the
phylogenic classifications of
August Eichler and his successors this group corresponds to the
Gamopetalae of
Bentham and Hooker, gamopetally being a
synonym
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...
of sympetally. This was one of the three divisions of
dicotyledons in their system. In Eichler's ''Blüthendiagramme'', the class Dicotyleae was divided into two subclasses, the Sympetalae (also classified as Metachlamydeae) and the
Choripetalae.
Adolf Engler
Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with K ...
and
Karl Prantl also listed Sympetalae as a division of the class Dicotyledoneae in their system, ''Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'', with Sympetalae being composed of gamopetalous families having gamopetalous corollas.
Alfred Rendle similarly described Sympetalae as originating from
dicots, and then divided them into Pentacyclicae and Tetracyclicae in accordance with the number of flower parts in each group, four and five respectively.
According to Engler and Prantl, Sympetalae includes the following orders:
Diapensiales,
Ericales
The Ericales are a large and diverse order of flowering plants in the asterid group of the eudicots. Well-known and economically important members of this order include tea and ornamental camellias, persimmon, ebony, blueberry, cranberry, l ...
,
Primulales,
Plumbaginales,
Ebenales, Contortae,
Tubiflorae,
Plantaginales,
Rubiales,
Cucurbitales
The Cucurbitales are an order of flowering plants, included in the rosid group of dicotyledons. This order mostly belongs to tropical areas, with limited presence in subtropical and temperate regions. The order includes shrubs and trees, togeth ...
, and
Campanulatae.
Sympetalous flowers are found in many angiosperms, but it was the combination of sympetally with a "stamen whorl isomerous and alternate with the corolla-lobes, or stamens fewer than the corolla lobes" that
Takhtajan (1964) used to define the subclass
Asteridae, and later by
Cronquist (1981), and later, corresponding to the
asterids
Asterids are a large clade (monophyly, monophyletic group) of flowering plants, composed of 17 Order_(biology), orders and more than 80,000 species, about a third of the total flowering plant species. The asterids are divided into the unranked cl ...
in the modern
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) system, based on
molecular phylogenetics
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 ...
. Since sympetally has arisen independently many times in evolution (
homoplasy), on its own it is not useful for
taxonomic classification
In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon), and these groups are given ...
.
Examples
* Lady's bedstraw (''
Galium verum'')
* Olive (''
Olea europaea'')
* Northern highbush blueberry (''
Vaccinium corymbosum'')
* Willow gentian (''
Gentiana asclepiadea'')
* Lavender (''
Lavandula angustifolia'')
* Jalap (''
Ipomoea purga'')
See also
*
Asteridae
*
Asterids
Asterids are a large clade (monophyly, monophyletic group) of flowering plants, composed of 17 Order_(biology), orders and more than 80,000 species, about a third of the total flowering plant species. The asterids are divided into the unranked cl ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
{{refend
Historically recognized angiosperm taxa