The Malvales, an order of flowering plants within the phylum Angiosperm and the class Eudicotyledon, consists of 10 families, 338 genera and 6,888 species, which species are mostly shrubs and trees; many of the species have a cosmopolitan distribution (very widespread) in the tropic and subtropics areas. However, there are a limited expansion into some temperate regions.
Species and Uses
Many of the species within this order are valued for their wood, with Ochroma Pyramidale kmown for its lightness (common name: Balsa wood). The fruit from Theobroma cacao (common name: cacao tree) is cultivated for it ingredients for making chocolate. The three from the genus Cola has nuts know as kola nuts, which are used for producing ingredients containing caffeine and used as a flavoring in beverages.
Many other well known members of this order include: daphnes, hibiscus, hollyhocks, okra, jute, baobab trees, cotton, kapok and durian
Description
The order Malvales is diverse, with many of the species having few common characteristics. However, one common characteristic encountered are their leaf shapes, which are in palmate form (palm-shaped with lobes and/or leaflets stemming from the leaf base). Another common characteristic encountered is that their flower sepal are connate (the developmental fusion of organs of the same typ to for a tubular corolla). There are other common characteristics but methinks I have already gotten too complicated in this description.
The dominate family (as far as number of species) within the order of Malvales is the family of Malvacaee with 244 genera and 4,225 species, followed by the family Thymelaeaceae with 50 genera and 898 species
