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order of flowering plants, a basal branch of the angiosperm tree, consisting of 1 family, Chloranthaceae, with 4 genera ( Ascarina, Chloranthus, Hedyosmum, and Sarcandra) and about 75 species. Chloranthaceae appears very early in the flowering plant fossil record, but its relationships to other basal flowering plant groups remain somewhat unclear.
evolution of magnoliids
...new fossil has been linked with several extant angiospermous families. Its leaves resemble those of Saururaceae, Piperaceae, and Aristolochiaceae (Piperales), but its reproductive organs resemble Chloranthaceae (Piperales). If the fossil had also contained the Clavatipollenites pollen, further links with Chloranthaceae and Aristolochiaceae would have been suggested. An ancestor of such...