Gunnerales

▪ plant order

      small order of dicotyledonous (dicotyledon) flowering plants containing two families, Gunneraceae and Myrothamnaceae, each with just one genus—respectively, Gunnera (40–50 species) and Myrothamnus (2 species).

      Members of Gunneraceae and Myrothamnaceae look at first sight very different. Gunneraceae species are often huge herbs growing in humid environments, while Myrothamnaceae species are resurrection plants of dry areas of Africa. However, both families have similar anatomy down to details revealed only by using an electron microscope, and both families have leaves with toothed margins, stipules or stipulelike growths, and secondary veins radiating from the base of the blade. Both families also have flowers of each sex on different parts of the plants.

      Members of Gunnera are rhizomatous (rhizome) or stemless herbs, which grow around the South Pacific, Antarctic islands, Hawaii, South and Central America, Africa, and Madagascar. The plants have colonies of a nitrogen-fixing blue-green algae, Nostoc, in both their stems and their roots. The leaf blades vary from a few millimetres to more than 3 metres (10 feet) across and have very prominent veins on their lower surfaces. The stipules are large and sometimes very complex in their morphology; they grow from the stem. The inflorescence is often large and branched, although the flowers are small. The ovary is inferior, and there are two pistils. The fruit is fleshy, the seed being surrounded by a stone.

      Gunneraceae is an ancient family, with fossils of Gunnera plants that are some 95 million years old. Most Gunnera species grow in rather damp, temperate conditions. Their flowers are probably pollinated by wind, and the fruits are dispersed by animals such as birds. Members of Gunneraceae were often placed near Haloragaceae, or the water milfoil family; however, the flowers of the two are quite different, and the latter family is now included in the order Saxifragales.

      Members of Myrothamnus are aromatic-resinous shrubs from Africa and Madagascar; the two species in the genus are vegetatively very distinctive. The leaves are opposite and have a long common sheath on which there are four persistent points, or stipules. The secondary veins of the blades radiate from the base, and the margins are toothed. The small flowers are borne in leafy spikes. The female flowers have three to four almost separate carpels that open in fruit to release the seeds. Myrothamnus species are resurrection plants—when there is no rain, the leaves dry black and are apparently dead, but they become fleshy and green and resume photosynthesis when rain returns.

      Gunnerales is a basal eudicot clade (organisms with a common ancestry characterized by three-pored pollen) that branches immediately below the core eudicots; the latter tend to have more-standardized five-merous flowers with separate petals and sepals. For more information on the modern Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II botanical classification system, see angiosperm.

Paul E. Berry

 

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