The Fabaceae, as the third-largest plant family in the world, contain most of the diversity of the Fabales, the other families making up a comparatively small portion of the order's diversity. Research in the order is largely focused on the Fabaceae, due in part to its great biological diversity, and to its importance as food plants. The Polygalaceae are fairly well researched among plant families, in part due to the large diversity of the genusPolygala, and other members of the family being food plants for variousLepidoptera (butterfly andmoth) species.[3][4] While taxonomists usingmolecular phylogenetic techniques find strong support for the order, questions remain about the morphological relationships of the Quillajaceae and Surianaceae to the rest of the order, due in part to limited research on these families.[5]
According tomolecular clock calculations, the lineage that led to Fabales split from other plants about 101 million years ago.[6]
^Morgan, DR; Soltis, DE; Robertson KR (July 1994). "Systematic and evolutionary implications of rbcL sequence variation in Rosaceae".American Journal of Botany.81 (7). Botanical Society of America:890–903.doi:10.2307/2445770.JSTOR2445770.
^Susana Magallón & Amanda Castillo (2009), "Angiosperm diversification through time",American Journal of Botany,96 (1):349–365,doi:10.3732/ajb.0800060,PMID21628193
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