Malpighiales

Malpighiales is one of the largest orders of flowering plants, containing about 16000 species, approximately 7.8% of the eudicots. The order is very diverse and hard to recognize except with molecular phylogenetic evidence. It is not part of any of the classification systems that are based only on plant morphology. Molecular clock calculations estimate the origin of stem group Malpighiales at around 100 Mya (million years ago) and the origin of crown group Malpighiales at about 90 Mya.