Ranunculales

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Ranunculales

Ranunculus repens

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Ranunculales Dumortier

families

See text

Ranunculales is an order of flowering plants. Of necessity it contains the family Ranunculaceae, the buttercup family.

The APG system (1998) and the APG II system (2003) both recognize the order and place it among the basal eudicots, not assigned to a further clade. These systems use this circumscription:

order Ranunculales

family Berberidaceae

family Circaeasteraceae

[+ family Kingdoniaceae ]

family Eupteleaceae

family Lardizabalaceae

family Menispermaceae

family Papaveraceae

[+ family Fumariaceae ]

[+ family Pteridophyllaceae ]

family Ranunculaceae

Note: "+ ..." = optional segregrate family, that may be split off from the preceding family.

Under this definition, well-known members of Ranunculales include buttercups, clematis, columbines, delphiniums, and poppies.

The Cronquist system (1981) also recognised the order, but placed it in the subclass Magnoliidae, in class Magnoliopsida [= dicotyledons]. It used this circumscription:

order Ranunculales

family Ranunculaceae

family Circaeasteraceae

family Berberidaceae

family Sargentodoxaceae

family Lardizabalaceae

family Menispermaceae

family Coriariaceae

family Sabiaceae

In the Cronquist system the Papaveraceae and Fumariaceae (including the plants in the optional family Pteridophyllaceae) were treated as a separate order Papaverales, placed in this same subclass Magnoliidae.