List of basal superasterid families



The basal superasterids are three orders of flowering plants – Caryophyllales, Santalales and Berberidopsidales – that belong to the superasterids. They include 47 families of woody and non-woody plants, cactuses and other succulents, and plants that grow in soil, in water and on other plants.

The spinach family includes sugar beets, which account for a fifth of the world's sugar consumption. Opuntia ficus-indica, a prickly pear species, is the most common food crop of the cactuses. Carnations are cultivated for their oils and for the cut-flower trade. Sundews, Venus flytraps and the aquatic Aldrovanda all have leaves that surround, trap and digest insects and other small animals. Nepenthes catches its prey with slippery pitchers of water and digestive juices. The garden ornamental Lewisia can survive two-year droughts. Jojoba oil, widely used in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, is similar to the oils produced by human skin glands.

Glossary
From the glossary of botanical terms:
 * annual: a plant species that completes its life cycle within a single year or growing season
 * basal: attached close to the base (of a plant or an evolutionary tree diagram)
 * climber: a vine that leans on, twines around or clings to other plants for vertical support
 * herbaceous: not woody; usually green and soft in texture
 * perennial: not an annual or biennial
 * scale: a reduced leaf or a flattened outgrowth
 * succulent (adjective): juicy or fleshy
 * unisexual: of one sex; bearing only male or only female reproductive organs
 * woody: hard and lignified; not herbaceous

The APG IV system is the fourth in a series of plant taxonomies from the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. In this system, the superasterids (named for the asters) account for more than a third of all flowering plant species. Caryophyllales, Santalales and Berberidopsidales are basal within the superasterids. Caryophyllales species characteristically have perisperm (a source of nutrition for the embryo), campylotropous (rotated) ovules, and roots that lack symbiotic fungal relationships. The small order Berberidopsidales (just four species) may be the earliest-diverging superasterid order. In Santalales, an order of parasitic plants, the relationships between the families are not completely understood.