Piperales, ordinul plantelor cu flori cuprinzând 3 familii, 17 genuri și 4.170 specii. Alături de ordinele Laurales, Magnoliales și Canellales, Piperales formează clada magnoliidă, care este o ramură evolutivă timpurie în arborele angiospermului; clada corespunde unei părți din subclasa Magnoliidae aflată sub vechiul sistem de clasificare botanică Cronquist.
Multe specii Piperales sunt ornamentale cultivate, inclusiv coada șopârlei (Saururus cernuus); Specie de Peperomie; Anemopsis, din sud-vestul Americii de Nord; Houttuynia, o acoperire de sol din Asia; ghimbir sălbatic (Asarum); și vining specii Aristolochia, unele cunoscute sub numele de pipe olandez. Piper nigrum este sursa principală a condimentului picant cunoscut sub numele de ardei negru (dar și piper verde sau alb).
Caracteristici comune
Membrii comenzii Piperales au adesea mai multe caracteristici întâlnite și în monocotiledonate, incluzând fascicule vasculare discrete în tulpină și părți de flori triplete. Deși există membri lemnoși, acest ordin este ierbos caracteristic și are adesea noduri de frunze umflate. Reproducerea prin semințe este principala metodă de dispersie a speciilor în Piperales, dar fragmentarea rizomilor din familia cozii șopârlei asigură propagarea vegetativă. Drupa este tipul de fructe predominant în Piperaceae sau familia ardeilor, în timp ce fructele uscate caracterizează celelalte patru familii.
Familii
Saururaceae, familia coada șopârlei, este originară din America de Nord și Asia de Sud-Est. Cuprinde cinci genuri și șase specii, majoritatea plante aromatice cu rizomi înfiorători (tulpini orizontale). Plantele locuiesc în general în zonele umede.
The largest family in Piperales is Piperaceae, which is pantropical and includes 5 genera and some 3,600 species, most of them in the large genera Peperomia and Piper (the black pepper genus). Saururaceae and Piperaceae are closely related. Their inflorescences (flower clusters) are slender, spikelike, and covered with inconspicuous closely appressed flowers. Even though individual flowers are small, the floral spikes are showy, and in several Saururaceae species the spikes resemble a single flower because of the expanded bracts that arise below the inflorescence. In Saururus the elongate cluster bends at its tip to suggest the fanciful appellation “lizard’s tail.” Other features common to most species of these two families include a sheathing leaf base, a lack of sepals and petals, bisexual flowers (stamens and carpels in the same flower), and the presence of one erect ovule per ovary chamber.
Aristolochiaceae, the birthwort family, includes about 590 species of woody vines, shrubs, and herbaceous species. Most species are distributed in the tropics of both hemispheres, though several genera are in the temperate zone. Compared with the flowers of other Piperales families, those of Aristolochiaceae are usually large, and some trap pollinating flies that are lured by unpleasant smells. Asarum and Saruma are herbaceous genera of the north temperate zone, most diverse in eastern Asia. Aristolochia includes more than 400 species of vines and herbs, many of them tropical. It is this group that is sometimes divided into two or four separate genera.
Lactoris fernandeziana, the only species in Lactoris (formerly of the family Lactoridaceae), is found on one island of the Juan Fernández Archipelago, off the coast of Chile. The leaves have a sheathing base, and the flowers occur singly or in small clusters along the stem. The flower stalks, or petioles, appear to arise from a sheathing leaf base that lacks a leaf blade. Lactoris pollen has been recovered in southern Africa from sediments dating back to the Late Cretaceous Epoch (100.5 million to 66 million years ago).
The former family Hydnoraceae is now a small subfamily of Aristolochiaceae, with seven species in two genera. They are terrestrial parasitic plants that lack leaves and chlorophyll. The large flowers have a single three-parted perianth whorl and an inferior ovary; they are foul-smelling and are pollinated by flies and beetles. Prosopanche occurs in Central and South America, and Hydnora occurs in Africa, Madagascar, and the Arabian Peninsula. The southern African Hydnora triceps grows exclusively on succulent species of Euphorbia.
