In the APG II system

APG II system

The APG II system of plant classification is the second, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy that was published in April 2003 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. It was a revision of the first APG system, published in 1998, and was superseded in 2009...

 (2003) for the classification of flowering plants, the name asterids refers to a clade

Clade

A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...

 (a monophyletic group).

Most of the taxa belonging to this clade had been referred to the Asteridae

Asteridae

Asteridae is a clade of plants, known for their flowers. Asteridae has been ranked as a subclass, but this ranking has varied depending on the taxonomy being used...

 in the Cronquist system

Cronquist system

The Cronquist system is a taxonomic classification system of flowering plants. It was developed by Arthur Cronquist in his texts An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants and The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants .Cronquist's system places flowering plants into two...

 (1981) and to the Sympetalae

Sympetalae

Sympetalae, meaning “with fused petals”, is a descriptive botanical name used in the Eichler, Engler, and Wettstein systems for a group in the flowering plants...

 in earlier systems. The name asterids (plural, not necessarily capitalized) is presumably inspired by the earlier botanical name

Botanical name

A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar and/or Group epithets must conform to the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants...

 but in itself is intended to be the name of a clade rather than a formal ranked name, in the sense of the ICBN. This clade is one of the two main groups of eudicots

Eudicots

Eudicots and Eudicotyledons are botanical terms introduced by Doyle & Hotton to refer to a monophyletic group of flowering plants that had been called tricolpates or non-Magnoliid dicots by previous authors...

, the other being the rosids

Rosids

The rosids are members of a large clade of flowering plants, containing about 70,000 species, more than a quarter of all angiosperms. The clade is divided into 16 to 20 orders, depending upon circumscription and classification. These orders, in turn, together comprise about 140 families...

. It consists of:

• clade asterids :

  order Cornales

  Cornales

  Cornales is an order of flowering plants, basal among the asterids, containing about 600 species. Plants within Cornales usually have four-parted flowers, drupaceous fruits, and inferior gynoecia topped with disc-shaped nectaries...

  
  

  order Ericales

  Ericales

  The Ericales are a large and diverse order of dicotyledons, including for example tea, persimmon, blueberry, Brazil nut, and azalea. The order includes trees and bushes, lianas and herbaceous plants. Together with ordinary autophytic plants, the Ericales include chlorophyll-deficient...

  
  

  clade euasterids I

  family Boraginaceae

  Boraginaceae

  Boraginaceae, the Borage or Forget-me-not family, include a variety of shrubs, trees, and herbs, totaling about 2,000 species in 146 genera found worldwide.A number of familiar plants belong to this family....

  
  

  family Icacinaceae

  Icacinaceae

  Icacinaceae is a family of flowering plants.It consists of trees, shrubs, and lianas, primarily of the tropics.The family was traditionally circumscribed quite broadly, with around 55 genera totalling over 400 species...

  
  

  family Oncothecaceae

  family Vahliaceae

  order Garryales

  Garryales

  The Garryales are a small order of dicotyledons, including only two families and three genera:* Family Garryaceae**Garrya**Aucuba* Family Eucommiaceae**Eucommia...

  
  

  order Solanales

  Solanales

  The Solanales are an order of flowering plants, included in the asterid group of dicotyledons. Some older sources used the name Polemoniales for this order....

  
  

  order Gentianales

  Gentianales

  Gentianales are an order of flowering plants, included within the asterid group of dicotyledons.The circumscription of Gentiales in the Cronquist system included a broadly defined Loganiaceae , Retziaceae, Gentianaceae, Saccifoliaceae, Apocynaceae, and Asclepiadaceae...

  
  

  order Lamiales

  Lamiales

  Lamiales is an order in the asterid group of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It includes approximately 11,000 species divided into about 20 families...

  
  

  clade euasterids II

  family Bruniaceae

  Bruniaceae

  Bruniaceae is a family of shrubs native to the cape region of South Africa. They are mostly restricted to the Cape Province, but a small number of species occur in KwaZulu-Natal....

  
  

  family Columelliaceae

  Columelliaceae

  Columelliaceae is a family of trees and shrubs native to the Andes of South America.In the APG II taxonomy they are placed in the order Lamiales, but a 2008 study suggested that they are sister to the Bruniaceae, and the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website proposes incorporating this finding by placing...

  
   (+ family Desfontainiaceae)

  family Eremosynaceae

  family Escalloniaceae

  Escalloniaceae

  The Escalloniaceae is a family of flowering plants comprising about 130 species in seven genera. In the APG II system it is one of eight families in the euasterids II clade that are unplaced as to order...

  
   (+ family Tribelaceae)

  family Paracryphiaceae

  Paracryphiaceae

  Paracryphiaceae is a family of woody shrubs and trees native to Australia, south-east Asia, and New Caledonia. Under the APG II system, this family contains two genera: the monotypic Paracryphia, endemic to New Caledonia; and Quintinia, with 25 species in the Philippines, New Guinea, the east coast...

  
   (+ families Sphenostemonaceae and Quintiniaceae)

  family Polyosmaceae

  order Aquifoliales

  Aquifoliales

  The Aquifoliales are an order of flowering plants, including most notably the Aquifoliaceae, or holly family, and also the Helwingiaceae and the Phyllonomaceae . In 2001, the families Stemonuraceae and Cardiopteridaceae were added to this order...

  
  

  order Apiales

  Apiales

  The Apiales are an order of flowering plants. The families given at right are those recognized in the APG III system. This is typical of the newer classifications, though there is some slight variation, and in particular the Torriceliaceae may be divided...

  
  

  order Dipsacales

  Dipsacales

  The Dipsacales are an order of flowering plants, included within the asterid group of dicotyledons.Under the Cronquist system, the order included Adoxaceae, Caprifoliaceae, Dipsacaceae, and Valerianaceae. Under the more recent Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, the circumscription of the order is...

  
  

  order Asterales

  Asterales

  Asterales is an order of dicotyledonous flowering plants that includes the composite family and its related families.The order is a cosmopolite, and includes mostly herbaceous species, although a small number of trees and shrubs are also present.The Asterales can be characterized on the...

  
  

Note : “ + ....” = optional as a segregate of the preceding family.

External links

• Asterids in Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 7, May 2006.