English: Araucarians; Araucaria family.
Genera: Agathis, Araucaria, Wollemia; 41 species.
BotanyTrees; tall, large; evergreen.
Leaves: small, needle-like; curved or large, broadly ovate, flattened, spirally arranged, persistent; usually parallel venation; monoecious or dioecious; cotyledons 2–4.
Pollen: broad to acicular pollen not saccate.
Seed cones: large, disintegrate.
TaxonomyAraucariaceae is a
Family in the Order
Pinales.
Araucariaceae were at maximum diversity in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, distributed almost worldwide. At the end of the Cretaceous, when dinosaurs became extinct, so too did the
Araucariaceae in the northern hemisphere.
In the
Plant theory Araucariaceae is in
Pinales,
Pinidae.
Araucariaceae is placed in
Subphase 2.