Alverson W, Karol K, Baum D, Chase M, Swensen S, McCourt R, Sytsma K
Am J Bot. 1998 Jun;85(6):876.
The order Malvales remains poorly circumscribed, despite its seemingly indisputable core constituents: Bombacaceae, Malvaceae, Sterculiaceae, and Tiliaceae. We conducted a two-step parsimony analysis on 125 rbcL sequences to clarify the composition of Malvales, to determine the relationships of some controversial families, and to identify the placement of the Malvales within Rosidae. We sampled taxa that have been previously suggested to be within, or close to, Malvales (83 sequences), plus additional rosids (26 sequences) and nonrosid eudicots (16 sequences) to provide a broader framework for the analysis. The resulting trees strongly support the monophyly of the core malvalean families, listed above. In addition, these data serve to identify a broader group of taxa that are closely associated with the core families. This expanded malvalean clade is composed of four major subclades: (1) the core families (Bombacaceae, Malvaceae, Sterculiaceae, Tiliaceae); (2) Bixaceae, Cochlospermaceae, and Sphaerosepalaceae (Rhopalocarpaceae); (3) Thymelaeaceae sensu lato (s.l.); and (4) Cistaceae, Dipterocarpaceae s.l., Sarcolaenaceae (Chlaenaceae), and Muntingia. In addition, Neurada (Neuradaceae or Rosaceae) falls in the expanded malvalean clade but not clearly within any of the four major subclades. This expanded malvalean clade is sister to either the expanded capparalean clade of Rodman et al. or the sapindalean clade of Gadek et al. Members of Elaeocarpaceae, hypothesized by most authors as a sister group to the four core malvalean families, are shown to not fall close to these taxa. Also excluded as members of, or sister groups to, the expanded malvalean clade were the families Aextoxicaceae, Barbeyaceae, Cannabinaceae, Cecropiaceae, Dichapetalaceae, Elaeagnaceae, Euphorbiaceae s.l., Huaceae, Lecythidaceae, Moraceae s.l., Pandaceae, Plagiopteraceae, Rhamnaceae, Scytopetalaceae, Ulmaceae, and Urticaceae.
锦葵目（Malvales）的界定仍不明确，尽管其核心组成部分似乎无可争议：木棉科（Bombacaceae）、锦葵科（Malvaceae）、梧桐科（Sterculiaceae）和椴树科（Tiliaceae）。我们对125条rbcL序列进行了两步简约分析，以阐明锦葵目的组成，确定一些有争议科的关系，并确定锦葵目在蔷薇亚纲（Rosidae）中的位置。我们选取了先前被认为属于锦葵目或与锦葵目相近的分类群（83条序列），以及其他蔷薇类植物（26条序列）和非蔷薇类真双子叶植物（16条序列），为分析提供更广泛的框架。所得树状图有力地支持了上述核心锦葵目科的单系性。此外，这些数据有助于确定与核心科密切相关的更广泛分类群。这个扩展的锦葵目分支由四个主要亚分支组成：（1）核心科（木棉科、锦葵科、梧桐科、椴树科）；（2）红木科（Bixaceae）、卷柏科（Cochlospermaceae）和球萼树科（Sphaerosepalaceae，旧称Rhopalocarpaceae）；（3）广义的瑞香科（Thymelaeaceae s.l.）；（4）半日花科（Cistaceae）、广义的龙脑香科（Dipterocarpaceae s.l.）、裂药花科（Sarcolaenaceae，旧称Chlaenaceae）和蒙廷木科（Muntingiaceae）。此外，假牛繁缕属（Neurada，属于假牛繁缕科（Neuradaceae）或蔷薇科（Rosaceae））属于扩展的锦葵目分支，但未明确归入四个主要亚分支中的任何一个。这个扩展的锦葵目分支是罗德曼等人扩展的白花菜目分支或加德克等人的无患子目分支的姐妹群。大多数作者假设为四个核心锦葵目科姐妹群的杜英科（Elaeocarpaceae）成员，结果显示与这些分类群关系不紧密。同样被排除在扩展的锦葵目分支成员或姐妹群之外的科有：毒鼠子科（Aextoxicaceae）、巴氏木科（Barbeyaceae）、大麻科（Cannabinaceae）、蚁栖树科（Cecropiaceae）、毒鼠子科（Dichapetalaceae）、胡颓子科（Elaeagnaceae）、广义大戟科（Euphorbiaceae s.l.）、胡麻科（Huaceae）、玉蕊科（Lecythidaceae）、广义桑科（Moraceae s.l.）、攀打科（Pandaceae）、斜翼科（Plagiopteraceae）鼠李科（Rhamnaceae）、盾蕊科（Scytopetalaceae）、榆科（Ulmaceae）和荨麻科（Urticaceae）。
