Ranunculales - AccessScience from McGraw-Hill Education http://www.accessscience.com/content/ranunculales/573100

Article by:

Cronquist, Arthur Formerly, New York Botanical Garden, New York, New York.

Barkley, Theodore M. Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.

Publication year: 2014

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.573100 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.573100)

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Additional Readings

An order of flowering plants, division Magnoliophyta (Angiospermae), in the subclass Magnoliidae of the class Magnoliopsida

(dicotyledons). The order consists of 8 families and about 3200 species. The vast majority of the species belong to only 3

families: the Ranunculaceae (2000), Berberidaceae (650), and Menispermaceae (425). Within its subclass, the order is

characterized by its mostly separate carpels, triaperturate pollen, herbaceous or only secondarily woody habit, frequently

numerous stamens, generally more than two sepals, and lack of ethereal oil cells. Many members of the order produce

benzyl-isoquinoline alkaloids or aporphine alkaloids, or b oth. The Ranunculales are generally considered to be derived from

the Magnoliales, a woody order in the same subclass. The barberry (Berberis), in the family Berberidaceae, and the buttercup

(Ranunculus), columbine (Aquilegia; see illustration), larkspur (Delphinium), and w indflower (Anemone), in the family

Ranunculaceae, are familiar genera. See also: Magnoliales (/content/magnoliales/400800); Magnoliophyta (/content

/magnoliophyta/401000); Magnoliopsida (/content/magnoliopsida/401100); Plant kingdom (/content/plant-kingdom

/523300)

Colorado columbine (Aquilegia coerulea) of family Ranunculaceae. (U.S. Forest Service photograph by C . A. Kutzleb)

Arthur Cronquist

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Ranunculales - AccessScience from McGraw-Hill Education http://www.accessscience.com/content/ranunculales/573100

T. M. Barkley

Additional Readings

W. C. Evans, Trease and Eva ns Pharmacognosy, 16th ed., Saunders, Philadelphia, PA, 2009

B. Sharma et al., Petal-specific subfunctionalization of an APETALA3 paralog in the Ranunculales and its implications for

petal evolution, New. Phytol., 191(3):870–883, 2011 D OI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2011.03744.x (http://dx.doi.org/10.1111

/j.1469-8137.2011.03744.x)

M. G. Simpson, Plant Systematics, 2d ed., Academic Press, Burlington, MA, 2010

E. L. Taylor, T. N. Taylor, and M. Krings, Paleobotany: The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants, 2d ed., Academic Press,

Burlington, MA, 2009

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