Fabales
Order of flowering plants including legumes and milkworts.
Fabales is an order of flowering plants within the rosid group of the eudicots, as defined by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II classification system. The order includes the families Fabaceae (legumes), Quillajaceae, Polygalaceae (milkworts), and Surianaceae, with Fabaceae containing most of the order's diversity. Research in Fabales is largely focused on Fabaceae due to its biological diversity and importance as food plants.
- classification_system
- APG II
- included_families
- Fabaceae, Quillajaceae, Polygalaceae, Surianaceae
- largest_family
- Fabaceae (third-largest plant family)
- distribution
- cosmopolitan, except subfamily Papilionoideae well dispersed in northern North Temperate Zone
Lore & Background
Under the Cronquist system, Fabales contained only the family Fabaceae, while the other families were placed in separate orders: Polygalaceae in Polygalales, and Quillajaceae and Surianaceae in Rosales. In the Dahlgren system, Fabales were in the superorder Fabiflorae with three families corresponding to the subfamilies of Fabaceae in APG II. Molecular phylogenetic techniques provide strong support for the order, but questions remain about the morphological relationships of Quillajaceae and Surianaceae to the rest of the order due to limited research.
Reader's Guide
Fabales is significant as an order that includes the Fabaceae, the third-largest plant family, which contains most of the order's diversity and is heavily researched for its biological diversity and role as food plants. The Polygalaceae are also well studied, partly due to the large genus Polygala and their use as food plants for Lepidoptera. The cosmopolitan distribution of Fabales is notable, though only the subfamily Papilionoideae is well dispersed in the northern North Temperate Zone. The order's classification has varied among systems, with APG II providing a broader circumscription than Cronquist, reflecting ongoing taxonomic refinement.
Did You Know?
- The Fabales order includes the families Fabaceae, Quillajaceae, Polygalaceae, and Surianaceae.
- Under the Cronquist system, Fabales contained only the family Fabaceae.
- Only the subfamily Papilionoideae of Fabaceae is well dispersed throughout the northern part of the North Temperate Zone.
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