The Thurniaceae are a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

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 composed of two genera with four species. The

botanical name A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or cultivar group, Group epithets must conform t ...

has been recognized by most taxonomists. The

APG II system The APG II system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II system) of plant classification is the second, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly Molecular phylogenetics, molecular-based, list of systems of plant taxonomy, system of plant taxonomy that ...

, of 2003, also recognizes such a family, and assigns it to the order

Poales The Poales are a large order (biology), order of flowering plants in the monocotyledons, and includes families of plants such as the Poaceae, grasses, bromeliads, Juncaceae, rushes and Cyperaceae, sedges. 14 plant families are currently recogniz ...

in the clade

commelinids In plant taxonomy, commelinids (originally commelinoids) is a clade of flowering plants within the monocots, distinguished by having cell walls containing ferulic acid. Well-known commelinids include palms and relatives (order Arecales), dayf ...

, in the

monocots Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, ( Lilianae '' sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but with various ranks a ...

. The family consists of two genera, totalling only a few species, perennial plants of wet habitats in South America and South Africa. This represents a slight change from the

APG system The APG system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system) of plant classification is the first version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy. Published in 1998 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, it was replaced by the improved ...

, 1998, which treated the two genera as each constituting their own family ( Prioniaceae and Thurniaceae), both placed in the order Poales. The

Cronquist system The Cronquist system is a list of systems of plant taxonomy, taxonomic classification system of angiosperms, flowering plants. It was developed by Arthur Cronquist in a series of monographs and texts, including ''The Evolution and Classification of ...

of 1981 also recognized such a family and placed it in the order Juncales in the subclass Commelinidae in class Liliopsida in division Magnoliophyta. The

Wettstein system A list of systems of plant taxonomy, system of plant taxonomy, the Wettstein system recognised the following main groups, according to Richard Wettstein's ''Handbuch der Systematischen Botanik'' (1901–1924). 3rd edition (1924) Outline Syn ...

, last updated in 1935, placed the family in order Liliiflorae.

References

Poales families Taxa named by Adolf Engler {{Poales-stub