Zingiberales contain eight families that are informally considered as two groups, differing in the number of fertile stamens. A "banana group" of four families appeared first and were named on the basis of largebanana-like leaves. Later, a more genetically coherent (monophyletic) "ginger group" appeared, consisting of the remaining four families. The order, which has afossil record, is thought to have originated in theEarly Cretaceous period between 80 and 120 million years ago (Mya), most likely inAustralia, anddiverged relatively rapidly with the families as they are known today established by the end of the period (66 Mya). Zingiberales are found throughout the tropics (pantropical) with some extension into subtropical and temperate climates. They rely oninsects forpollination, together with somebirds and small animals.
Leaves usuallypetiolate with distinct petiole and lamina, leaf arrangementdistichous (spiral in Musaceae). Venation pinnate-parallelodromous, with midrib (midvein), S-shaped lateral veins and fine transverse venation.[3][10]
Flowers are generally large and showy, following the general monocot pattern, withinflorescences inthyrse-like spikes,zygomorphic to asymmetric, with twotrimerouswhorls oftepals.Gynoecium tricarpellate,ovary epigynous (inferior), two trimerousandroecial whorls withstamens 6, 5 or 1. Stamens have elongated sterile filaments to which are attached anthers, distally, comprising about half of the length of the total stamen. Septalnectaries often present.[8][11][12]Pollensulcate but often inaperturate (lacking apertures).
Specific characteristics which help to distinguish this order include a herbaceousarborescentstem, distichousphyllotaxy, large petiolate leaves in which the petioles are often long, parallel and transverse venation diverging laterally from a prominent common midrib, andinflorescences of conspicuous colorfulbracts (bracteate inflorescence) and the substitution of one to five rudimentarystaminodia for fertilestamens.[14][15][16]
Leaf architecture is useful for distinguishing families within Zingiberales, based on vein pattern type, vein length per area, and other aspects of vein architecture such as angle of vein divergence, with three main types of venation recognised. These are theZingiber-type, with square to vertically elongateareoles, theCostus-type, with horizontally elongate areoles and theOrchidantha-type with cross veins spanning multiple parallel veins.[6][17]
Theapomorphies (derived characteristics common to a taxonomic group) are considered to be specialised isomorphic root hair cells, penni-parallel leaf venation, supervoluteptyxis (left and right halves of immature leaf lamina rolled into each other), diaphragmed air chambers in leaves and stem, presence of intracellularsilica bodies,epigynous flowers and an inferiorovary, pollen grains without distinctive aperture but with a reduced exine layer and an elaborated intine layer, nuclear endosperm development, and arillateseeds.[18][19][20]
"The Zingiberiflorae, whether treated as a separate superorder, as here, or an order in a more widely circumscribed unit, is one of the most indisputably natural suprafamilial groups."[21]
The Zingiberales have always been considered a unique and coherent (monophyletic) group, although accounting for <4% of extant monocots, which has led some authors to suggest they should constitute a higher taxonomic rank than order.[20] For a brief history of the taxonomy of this order, seeScitamineae, and Kress 1990.[16] They were first described byAugust Grisebach, theirbotanical authority, in 1854 as Zingiberides, an order of monocotyledons, subdivided into two families, Scitamineae and Musaceae.[2]
Based onmorphological grounds alone, earlysystems, such asBentham and Hooker (1883) placed the Scitamineae as anOrdo (family) of the Epigynae alliance in the monocotyledons, incorporating both of Grisebach's families.[22] Later systems such as theEngler system (1903)[23] and theWettstein system (1924),[24] also considered Scitamineae as a monocotyledon order and were influential for a long period of time. Variants included Scitaminales (Warming 1912).[25]Hutchinson (1926), although initially using Scitamineae, later followedTakenoshin Nakai (1930).[26][27] in adopting Zingiberales as the name for the order (6 families) in Division Calyciferae,[28] although credit is generally given to Nakai. This usage was followed byTakhtajan (1966) withinsuperorderLilianae[29] and byDahlgren (1985) in its own superorder Zingiberiflorae.[21]
Usingmolecular phylogenetics, which was first applied to the order in 1993,[30] theAngiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) system (1998),[4] (which generally followed Dahlgren, but with fewer divisions) confirmed the position of Zingiberales as a monophyletic order within the monocots, placing it in thecommelinoid clade, assister group toCommelinales, which Dahlgren had treated within a separate superorder. This was an ordinal system that did not examine subordinal structure. The 2003 revision (APG II) changed commelinoid to commelinid, but not the relationships,[5] and this remained unchanged in the subsequent 2009APG III system[31] and 2016APG IV system without addressing interfamilial relationships.[32]
The order, which now has more than 2,600 species, distributed in 68 genera over eight families, has been subdivided from early times. In theBentham & Hooker system (1883), their Ordo Scitamineae had fourtribes: Zingibereae, Maranteae, Canneae, and Museae. These have become progressively divided to form the modernphyletic classification into the following monophyletic families: Zingiberaceae (gingers), Musaceae (bananas), Heliconiaceae (heliconias), Strelitziaceae (bird-of-paradise), Costaceae (spiral gingers), Cannaceae (canna lilies), Marantaceae (prayer plants), and Lowiaceae (Orchidantha).[6][20] TheAPG II system (2003) provided a classification of families for the first time, retaining Kress's eight families.[5]
Based on morphology alone, the Zingiberales have been considered to form two main groups, each with four families, utilising the number of fertile stamens;
Musaceae,Strelitziaceae,Lowiaceae,Heliconiaceae. Aparaphyletic basal assemblage with 5 or (rarely) 6 fertile stamens at maturity, arranged in as trimerous inner and outer whorls. In those with five stamina, the sixth may regress and be absent (Strelitziaceae and Lowiaceae, some Musaceae) or develop as an infertile staminode (Heliconiaceae, some Musaceae). Petals and stamens are often fused at the base to form afloral tube. These are known as the banana-families or the bananas on the basis of large banana-like leaves. For this reason these four families were previously all included in Musaceae, but the exact relationship between them remains somewhat uncertain;[8][11][20]
Zingiberaceae,Costaceae,Cannaceae,Marantaceae (the gingers). Amonophyletic derived terminal clade with the number of fertile stamens reduced to one (Zingiberaceae, Costaceae) or to one half, with a singletheca (Cannaceae, Marantaceae). The remaining components of the androecium develop as four or five elaborate petaloid staminodia, highly modified from sterile stamens. This group may have one (Cannaceae, Marantaceae) or two (Zingiberaceae, Costaceae) anther pollen sacs. The infertile stamina arehomologous with the fertile stamina in the bananas and other monocots) but assume the structure and function ofpetals as pollinator attraction. This group demonstrate complex patterns of fusion among their floral organs including the staminodes. In Zingiberaceae and Costaceae the staminodes fuse to form a staminodial labellum which provides much of the floral display. In general the flowers of this group display higher degrees of organ fusion and specialisation.[8][11][20]
Using combined morphology and molecular data, Kress and colleagues (1993, 1995, 2001) confirmed the broad separation into two clades based on morphology alone, and produced an infraordinal structure.[20][30][34] In this scheme, they divided the families of the order as follows, with the ginger group as one suborder, and the banana group divided amongst three separate suborders:[35]
While the two sister family groups that constitute the Zingiberineae (Cladogram I) and also the basal Strelitziineae (Strelitziaceae-Lowiaceae) sister group (Cladogram II) were strongly supported, the position of Musaceae and Heliconiaceae were not. In the above model (Model 1), Musaceae appears as the first branching family, and Heliconiaceae placed as sister to the Zingiberineae (Cladogram III). Other studies placed these and the Strelitziaceae-Lowiaceae sister group in atrichotomy with the remaining families.[36] While a revision of the first model (Model 2) placed Heliconiaceae as the first branching lineage with Musaceae in a sister relationship with Strelitziineae, which in turn was sister to Zingiberineae (Cladogram IV).[37] A third model (Model 3) supports Musaceae as the basal group but places Heliconiaceae as sister to Strelitziineae (Cladogram V).[7] The failure to resolve the ancient rapid divergences of this order with multi-gene phylogenies and plastid data has important implications for understanding the evolution of characteristics.[37][38]
Cladogram II: Phylogeny of Suborder Strelitziineae
Strelitziineae
Lowiaceae
Strelitziaceae
Cladogram III: Phylogeny of Zingiberales (Model 1)[20]
Zingiberales
Zingiberineae
Heliconiaceae
Strelitziineae
Musaceae
Dashed line -- indicates weak support
Cladogram IV: Phylogeny of Zingiberales (Model 2)[37][39]
Zingiberales
Zingiberineae
Musaceae
Strelitziineae
Heliconiaceae
Dashed line -- indicates weak support
Cladogram V: Phylogeny of Zingiberales (Model 3)[7]
Zingiberales
Zingiberineae
Heliconiaceae
Strelitziineae
Musaceae
Dashed line -- indicates weak support
Finally in 2016 Sass and colleagues, using multiplexed exon capture were able to resolve the entire phylogenetic tree with high support. This confirmed the place of Musaceae as sister to the remaining families, confirming Model 3.[38]
Cladogram VI: Phylogeny of Zingiberales (Final Model)[38]
The common ancestor of the Zingiberales together with those of its sister order, theCommelinales, is estimated to have originated 158 Mya (million years ago) in theEarly Cretaceous, with separation of the two orders between 80 and 124 Mya, and with rapidradiation into the major lineages in the mid Cretaceous ca. 60–100 Mya and six of the eight families established by the end of the Cretaceous,[35][38] Estimates ofcrown group age (most recent common ancestor of the sampled species of the clade of interest) vary widely between 34 and 110 Mya, and may need revision in the light of developing knowledge of thetopology of the order.[9][38]
Fossil-calibrated molecular estimates suggest a date of 110 to 80 Mya for the diversification of primary lineages.[37] If Musaceae is the stem family of the order, as seems likely this places the origin of Zingiberales ca. 124 Mya, with diversification occurring ca. 110 Mya in the middle Cretaceous. That origin (124 Mya) was congruent with the breakup of the southern land mass,Gondwana.[7]
Probably the ancestral Zingiberales were distributed in tropical Gondwanal and encompassing present-day Americas, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Within this land mass, Australia seems the most likely ancestral area, with subsequent dispersals between Africa and neotropical America. Earlier studies had implied Southeast Asia as the origin.[35] The current distribution of the Zingiberales seems to be a product of numerous secondary and tertiary dispersal events between the major tropical regions of the world.[7]
Zingiberales demonstrate an evolutionary trend in theontogeny of theperianth (sepals and petals). The appearance of a dimorphic perianth (in which petals and sepals differ in appearance) is variable throughout the commelinid monocots, with a transition from an undifferentiated monomorphic perianth to a dimorphic one occurring independently in the two sister orders, Commelinales and the Zingiberales.[12] The evolution of floral morphology within Zingiberales demonstrates a marked correlation between the reduction of the number of fertile stamens, and increased petaloidy.[7] The ancestral Zingiberales flower is thought to have had 5–6 fertile stamens, following which the staminode evolved in the lineage leading to Heliconiaceae+Zingiberineae, finally leading to 2–5 staminodia dominating the floral display.[12]
The phylogenetic diversification and biogeographic dispersal of the Zingiberales was, in part, driven by the evolutionary radiation and diversification of their associated animal pollinators, which includebats,birds, non-flyingmammals andinsects.[35] Six of the eight families of the Zingiberales contain taxa specialised for pollination by vertebrates, which appears to be theplesiomorphic state in the order.[35] Of these six families two are exclusively vertebrate-pollinated (Strelitziaceae,Heliconiaceae).[35] Pollination by insects also occurs in six families with one (Marantaceae) or possibly two (Lowiaceae) families predominantly specialised for insect visitors.[35]
Seed and fruit fossils of the Zingiberales appear in theSantonian of the Late Cretaceous, ca. 85 Mya, and thought to represent Musaceae and Zingiberaceae, but the place of the oldest Zingiberales fossil,Spirematospermum with its distinctive seeds remains uncertain, but is most likely Zingiberaceae.[9] The leaf fossil record for Zingiberales also extends back to the Late Cretaceous.[7] Other fossil records include rhizomes andphytoliths.[37][38]
The four families of the basal banana group exhibit less taxonomic diversity than the terminal ginger group. The three genera of Musaceae are distributed in tropical Asia and Africa, although fossil evidence reveals their presence in North America and Africa in theTertiary, while the three genera of Strelitziaceae areallopatric (isolated from each other) being found in Madagascar, southern Africa and the Amazon Basin respectively and Lowiaceae occurs in Southeast Asia. The largest family in this group, the Heliconiaceae is primarilyneotropical, but also occurs in the Pacific from Samoa to Sulawesi.[35]
Of the four Zingiberineae (gingers) families, three (Zingiberaceae, Costaceae, Marantaceae) are pantropical. The fourth, Cannaceae is restricted to the New World, although widely cultivated. This suborder contains the two largest families (Zingiberaceae and Marantaceae) and the largest number of species.[35]
Zingiberales arepantropical and occur predominantly in the wet tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and the Americas, occupying nearly all tropical wet lowlands or middle elevation forests as part of theunderstory flora.[6] In addition five genera from three of the Zingiberineae families, includingCanna extend into subtropical and temperate regions. Of the eight families, Heliconiaceae, Marantaceae, and Costaceae are predominantly neotropical and Zingiberaceae most prevalent in Southeast Asian wet understory habitats. These are mainly small to medium-sized herbaceous taxa or vines. While some herbaceous Zingiberaceae such asAlpinia boia can attain a height of ten metres, only one species is a truecanopy plant (Ravenala madagascariensis – Strelitziaceae). The latter, a Madagascarendemic, has thick, palm-like trunks which push the fan-shaped crown of leaves up into the top layers of the forest. Some Zingiberales prefer a greater degree of light and are found in forest glades or margins, or in open secondary growth along streams and rivers.[35]
The large family Zingiberaceae has a number of subfamilies, one of which, Zingiberoideae, has members that have adapted toSoutheast Asia'smonsoonal climates. They do so by becomingdormant in the dry season, which may last four to six months, shedding all above ground parts, existing only as underground fleshy underground rhizomes, some of which have starch richtubers. With the onset of the wet season, they send up shoots and complete their life cycle during this time. Some taxa within Marantaceae, Costaceae, and Musaceae also occur in these habitats and have adapted in this way, but no Zingiberales occur in truedesert regions.
In contrast some Zingiberales, including taxa from Marantaceae, Heliconiaceae, Cannaceae (e.g.Canna glauca) have adopted anaquatic habitat and are found along river margins, ponds, and swampy areas, with their rhizomes rooted underwater.[35]
Hutchinson, John (1926–1934).The families of flowering plants, arranged according to a new system based on their probable phylogeny. 2 vols (1st ed.). Macmillan. Volume 1:Monocotyledonae 1926, Volume 2:Dicotyledonae 1934.
Kress, J.W.Phylogeny of the Zingiberanae: morphology and molecules. pp. 443–460., inRudall et al (1995)
Takhtajan, Armen Leonovich (1966)."Lilianae".Система и филогения цветкорых растений (Sistema i filogeniia tsvetkovykh rastenii) [Systema et Phylogemia Magnoliophytorum] (in Russian). trans. C Jeffrey, asFlowering plants: Origin and dispersal, Edinburgh : Oliver and Boyd, 1969. Moscow: Наука. p. 473.ISBN978-0-05-001715-9. Retrieved14 August 2015.
.jpg)
.jpg)
