Brassicales

Taxobox
name = Brassicales

---

image_caption = Garlic Mustard ("Alliaria petiolata") Family Brassicaceae
regnum = Plantae
unranked_divisio = Angiosperms
unranked_classis = Eudicots
unranked_ordo = Rosids
ordo = Brassicales
ordo_authority = Bromhead
subdivision_ranks = Families
subdivision = See text.

The Brassicales are an order of flowering plants, belonging to the eurosids II group of dicotyledons under the APG II system. Brassicales "sensu" APG II includes families classified under Capparales in previous classifications. One character common to many members of the order is the production of glucosinolate (mustard oil) compounds.

The APG II system includes the following families [Haston "et al." (2007)] :
* Family Akaniaceae
* Family Bataceae (salt-tolerant shrubs from America and Australasia)
* Family Brassicaceae (mustard and cabbage family)
* Family Capparaceae (caper family, sometimes included in Brassicaceae)
* Family Caricaceae (papaya family)
* Family Gyrostemonaceae
* Family Koeberliniaceae
* Family Limnanthaceae (meadowfoam family)
* Family Moringaceae (thirteen species of trees from Africa and India)
* Family Pentadiplandraceae
* Family Resedaceae (mignonette family)
* Family Salvadoraceae
* Family Setchellanthaceae
* Family Tovariaceae
* Family Tropaeolaceae (nasturtium family)

Under the Cronquist system, the Brassicales were called the Capparales, and included among the "Dilleniidae". The only families included were the Brassicaceae and Capparaceae (treated as separate families), the Tovariaceae, Resedaceae, and Moringaceae. Other taxa now included here were placed in various different orders.

The circumscriptions of several families are in flux and no consensus has yet emerged; the 1997 Takhtajan system changed allocations once again, inching towards a clearer structure. Several genera included in Capparaceae as traditionally circumscribed have since proven to be more closely related to Brassicaceae [Hall "et al." (2002)] , and because of this the two families were initially merged under Brassicaceae in the APG II system [APG (2003)] . The subsequent work [e.g. Hall "et al." (2004) and the APG II update by Haston "et al." (2007)] resolved the interrelationships of the Capparaceae-Brassicaceae lineages in more detail and allows to reestablish Capparaceae in a more restricted circumscription, either by including "Cleome" and related genera in Brassicaceae or by recognizing them in the segregate family Cleomaceae. The relationships of several other genera remain unresolved.

Footnotes

References

* (2003): An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG II. "Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society" 141(4): 399-436. doi|10.1046/j.1095-8339.2003.t01-1-00158.x [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046/j.1095-8339.2003.t01-1-00158.x/pdf PDF fulltext]
* (2007): A linear sequence of Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II families. "Taxon" 56(1): 7-12. [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iapt/tax/2007/00000056/00000001/art00002 HTML abstract]
* (2002): Phylogeny of Capparaceae and Brassicaceae based on chloroplast sequence data. "Am. J. Bot." 89(11): 1826-1842. [http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/reprint/89/11/1826.pdf PDF fulltext]
* (2004): Molecular phylogenetics of core Brassicales, placement of orphan genera "Emblingia", "Forchhammeria", "Tirania", and character evolution. "Systematic Botany" 29: 654-669. doi|10.1600/0363644041744491 [http://www.botany.wisc.edu/sytsma/LabWeb/pdf/Hall2004.pdf PDF fulltext]