Poales

The Poales are a large order of flowering plants in the monocotyledons, and includes families of plants such as the grasses, bromeliads, and sedges. Sixteen plant families are currently recognized by botanists to be part of Poales.

The earliest fossils attributed to the Poales date to the late Cretaceous period about 65.5 million years ago, though some studies (e.g., Bremer, 2002) suggest the origin of the of the group may extend to nearly 115 million years ago, likely in South America. The earliest known fossils include pollen and fruits. The flowers are typically small, enclosed by bracts, and arranged in inflorescences (except in the genus Mayaca, with solitary terminal flowers). The flowers of many species are wind pollinated; the seeds usually contain starch. The APG III system (2009) accepts the order and places it in a clade called commelinids, in the monocots. It uses this circumscription:

The earlier APG system (1998) adopted the same placement, although it used the spelling "commelinoids", and used the following circumscription (i.e., it did not include the plants in families Bromeliaceae and Mayacaceae in the order):

The morphology-based Cronquist system did not include an order named Poales, assigning these families to the orders Bromeliales, Cyperales, Hydatellales, Juncales, Restionales and Typhales.

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