Overview
Taxonomy
The Order Proteales is further organized into finer groupings including:
- Family (3): Nelumbonaceae · Platanaceae · Proteaceae
- Species: ZipcodeZoo has pages for 4,786 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in the Order Proteales.
Families
Nelumbonaceae
Nelumbo is a genus of aquatic plants with large, showy flowers resembling water lilies, commonly known as lotus. The generic name is derived from the Sinhalese word Nelum. There are only two known living species in the genus. The sacred lotus (N. nucifera) is native to Asia, and is the better known of the two. It is commonly cultivated, and also used in Chinese medicine and cooking. This species is the national flower of Egypt, India and Vietnam. The American lotus (N. lutea) is native to North America and the Caribbean. Horticultural hybrids have been produced between these two geographically separated species. A third, extinct species, N. aureavallis, is known from Eocene fossils from North Dakota, United States. [more]
Platanaceae
Platanaceae is a family of flowering plants. It has been recognized by almost all taxonomists, and is sometimes called the "plane-tree family". The plane-tree is referenced in Pliny the Younger's letter to Domitius Apollinaris as part of his description of his Tuscan Villa located somewhere in Tuscany in the 1st Century. [more]
Proteaceae
Proteaceae is a family of flowering plants distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises about 80 genera with about 1600 species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order Proteales. Well known genera include Protea, Banksia, Embothrium, Grevillea, Hakea, Dryandra and Macadamia. Species such as the New South Wales Waratah (Telopea speciosissima), King Protea (Protea cynaroides), and various species of Banksia, Grevillea, and Leucadendron are popular cut flowers, while the nuts of Macadamia integrifolia are widely commercially grown and consumed. [more]
At least 4,551 species and subspecies belong to the Family Proteaceae.
More info about the Family Proteaceae may be found here.
Sources
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