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Pinales

(Order)

Overview

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Photos

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Taxonomy

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The Order Pinales is a member of the Class Pinopsida. Here is the complete "parentage" of Pinales:

The Order Pinales is further organized into finer groupings including:

Families

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Araucariaceae

Araucariaceae, commonly referred to as araucarians, is a very ancient family of coniferous trees. It achieved its maximum diversity in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, when it was distributed almost worldwide. At the end of the Cretaceous, when dinosaurs became extinct, so too did the Araucariaceae in the northern hemisphere. [more]

Cephalotaxaceae

The family Cephalotaxaceae is a small grouping of conifers, with three genera and about 20 species, closely allied to the Taxaceae, and included in that family by some botanists. They are restricted to east Asia, except for two species of Torreya found in the southwest and southeast of the USA; fossil evidence shows a much wider prehistorical northern hemisphere distribution. The differences between the two families are as follows: [more]

Cupressaceae

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Emporiaceae

[more]

Ephedraceae

Ephedra is a genus of gymnosperm shrubs, the only genus in its family, Ephedraceae, and order, Ephedrales. Ephedra grows in dry climates over wide areas of the northern hemisphere, including southwestern North America, Europe, north Africa, and southwest and central Asia, and, in the southern hemisphere, in South America south to Patagonia. In temperate climates, most Ephedra species grow on shores or in sandy soils with direct sun exposure. Common names in English include Joint-pine, Jointfir, Mormon-tea or Brigham Tea. The Chinese name is mahuang (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ??; pinyin: m?hu?ng; Wade?Giles: ma-huang; literally "cannabis yellow"). Ephedra is also sometimes called sea grape (from the French raisin de mer), a common name for the flowering plant Coccoloba uvifera. [more]

Gnetaceae

Gnetum is a genus of about 30-35 species of gymnosperms, the sole genus in the family Gnetaceae and order Gnetales. They are tropical evergreen trees, shrubs and lianas. Unlike other gymnosperms they possess vessel elements in the xylem. Some species have been proposed to have been the first plants to be insect pollinated as they occur in association with the extinct pollinating scorpionflies. [more]

Majonicaceae

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Pinaceae

Pinaceae (the pine family) are trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as cedars, firs, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, formerly known as Coniferales. Pinaceae are supported as monophyletic by its protein-type sieve cell plastids, pattern of proembryogeny, and lack of bioflavonoids. They are the largest extant conifer family in species diversity, with between 220-250 species (depending on taxonomic opinion) in 11 genera, and the second-largest (after Cupressaceae) in geographical range, found in most of the Northern Hemisphere with the majority of the species in temperate climates but ranging from sub arctic to tropical. The family often forms the dominant component of boreal, coastal and montane forests. One species just crosses the equator in southeast Asia. Major centres of diversity are found in the mountains of southwest China, Mexico, central Japan and California. [more]

Podocarpaceae

Podocarpaceae is a large family of mainly Southern Hemisphere conifers, comprising about 156 species of evergreen trees and shrubs. It contains 19 genera if Phyllocladus is included and if Manoao and Sundacarpus are recognized. [more]

Sciadopityaceae

The Koyamaki (Sciadopitys verticillata), or Japanese Umbrella-pine, is a unique conifer endemic to Japan. It is the sole member of the family Sciadopityaceae and genus Sciadopitys, a living fossil with no close relatives, and known in the fossil record for about 230 million years. [more]

Taxaceae

The family Taxaceae, commonly called the yew family, includes three genera and about 7 to 12 species of coniferous plants, or in other interpretations (see Classification, below), six genera and about 30 species. [more]

Taxodiaceae

The Taxodiaceae were at one time regarded as a distinct plant family comprising the following ten genera of coniferous trees: [more]

Ullmanniaceae

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Utrechtiaceae

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Voltziaceae

[more]

Welwitschiaceae

Welwitschia is a monotypic genus of gymnosperm plant, composed solely of the very distinct Welwitschia mirabilis. The plant is commonly simply known as Welwitschia in English. It is known locally as !kharos or khurub (Nama), tweeblaarkanniedood (Afrikaans), nyanka (Damara), or onyanga (Herero), among others. It is the only genus of the family Welwitschiaceae and order Welwitschiales, in the division Gnetophyta. The plant, which is considered a living fossil, is named after the Austrian botanist Friedrich Welwitsch who discovered it in 1859. The geographic distribution of Welwitschia mirabilis is limited to the Namib desert within Namibia and Angola. [more]

At least 11 species and subspecies belong to the Family Welwitschiaceae.

More info about the Family Welwitschiaceae may be found here.

Sources

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Last Revised: August 25, 2014
2014/08/25 15:49:48