THE MAGNOLIID CLADE

Figure 1 shows that the magnoliids are comprised of two clades: Piperales + Canellales and Magnoliales + Laurales. APG III (2009) and Chase and Reveal (2009) indicate that the Chloranthales likely is the sister to the magnoliids (see also in Figure 1). Because APG III (2009) includes the order in its group of basal taxa, we have placed it in the “Nymphaeopsida.” Chase and Reveal (2009) consider the order unassigned, and they do not recognize a superorder.

ORDER PIPERALES

The Piperales is comprised of six families, of which Piperaceae is by far the most diverse.

PIPERACEAE

This is the pepper family and can be recognized by the formation of upright spikes of minute flowers without perianths. Piper nigrum (Black Pepper Figure 2) is historically the most important of the spices. The search for black pepper and the attempt to control its production and distribution helped to launch some of the earliest spice voyages of discovery and conquest by the Europeans.

ORDER CANELLALES

The Canellales is a relatively new order (Soltis and Soltis 2004) and formed of two very different families: Canellaceae and Winteraceae. However, all taxa are woody shrubs or small trees that are aromatic with a general southern hemispheric distribution. Drimys (Figure 3) occurs from Argentina and Chile to southern Mexico. The apparently primitive features of plants like Drimys have been interpreted as derived states in response to freezing (Feild et al. 2002).

ORDER MAGNOLIALES

The Magnoliales includes six families (e.g. nutmeg, pawpaw, and the magnolias).

MAGNOLIACEAE

The diversity of the Magnoliaceae is not very high (12 genera and 230 species, most of which are in Magnolia); however, they and other members of the Magnoliales have been at the focus of discussion about basal families in the flowering plants (e.g. Cronquist 1988; Dahlgren 1983; Donoghue and Doyle 1989; Qiu et al. 1993, 2000; Soltis et al. 1997, 2000; Takhtajan 1969, 1980, 1997; Thorne 1974, 1992). Most members of the Magnoliaceae are small trees or shrubs, though in our area, Liriodendron, the Tulip Poplar grows to be a very large tree. Members of the family occur in forests of temperate and tropical North America and Asia as well as tropical South America. Figure 4 shows the end of a branch in flower of Magnolia grandiflora, the Southern Magnolia. The leaves are large, simple and have stipules. The flowers are large, actinomorphic, and showy with an elongate receptacle and many whorls of tepals, petaloid stamens, and petaloid pistils. The fruit becomes an aggregate of follicles. Although most Magnolia species are pollinated by beetles, Liriodendron is pollinated by bees. Economically, Magnolia has its greatest value as an ornamental plant. However, Liriodendron grows large and fast making lumber that is one of the softest of the hardwoods.

ORDER LAURELALES

Laurelales is a large order with seven families and up to 2800 species.

LAURACEAE

Economically, Lauraceae is the most important family and includes small aromatic trees like Bay Laurel, cinnamon, avacado, and sassafras (Judd et al. 2002). Fruit of the Lauraceae is a drupe of which avacado (Figure 5) is a very large example.