English: Malva order.
Members: 204 genera; 2300 species.
Content: sesquiterpenes; sesquiterpene quinones; thorbromine; caggeine; flavonols; cyclopropenoid fatty acids; mucilage!; oxytocin.
Use: ropes, fibres, cotton, kapok, jute; fruits and flavourings, cacao, cola, durian, okra; timber of linden, basswood, balsa; ornamentals like Althaea, Ceiba, Hibiscus, Malva, Lavatera.
BotanyStem phloem stratified with fibrous and soft layers; bark fibrous and tough.
Leaves: with malvoid teeth, palmate; stipulate; lobed; simple; entire.
Flowers 5 connate sepals, 5 petals; stamens numerous, adnate to gynoecium; develop centrifugally from a few bundles; nectaries of glandular hairs; typical infloresence; epicalyx of bracts.
Fruit: inside wall often hairy, hairs stellate.
Seeds: oily or starchy; with woolly appendices.
TaxonomyThe order of the
Malvales has been established a long time. But the exact placement has been problematic. It was for a long time thought to be connected with the
Rosales. In the Cronquist system
Malvales included Malvaceae,
Sterculiaceae,
Bombacaceae,
Tiliaceae and
ElaeocarpaceaeNumerous molecular phylogenies have shown that those families as traditionally defined are paraphyletic and closely related. This has resulted in expanding Malvaceae to include the other families. The traditional families are now treated as subfamilies of the extended Malvaceae. The membership though of many genera has been transferred to other subfamilies and new subfamilies have been created:
Byttnerioideae, Grewioideae, Sterculioideae, Tilioideae, Dombeyoideae, Brownlowioideae, Helicteroideae,
Malvoideae, Bombacoideae.
In the
Apg3 classification 3 groups can be distinguished in
Malvales: the Families
Thymelaeaceae and
Neuradaceae that are early diverging,
Cistales and Malvaceae.
In the
Plant theory the order of the
Malvales is split into 3 clades:
Malvales,
Cistales and
Thymelaeaceae with
Neuradaceae.
Malvales is placed in
Phase 3 of
Malvidae.
Cistales, with
Cistaceae and
Dipterocarpaceae is placed in
Phase 5 of
Malvidae.
Thymelaeaceae and
Neuradaceae are placed in
Huerteales in
Phase 2.
The extended Malvaceae is raised to the level of Order,
Malvales and the subfamilies are treated as families.
Subphases1.
Sterculiaceae.
2. Malvioideae
3. Malvaceae.
4.
Tiliaceae.
5.
Bombacaceae.
6.
Byttneriaceae7.
Grewiaceae.