My classification of monocots

[Ken Kinman]

Dear all,
     Here it is.  I've finished my preliminary recoding and reclassification
of monocots.  I have already stated my reasons for trimming back the overly
broad Poales of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group.  The work of the APG is
excellent, but although I tend to be a lumper myself, I think they
occasionally get a little bit carried away with the "lumping" of orders.
     This leaves the overly broad (in my opinion) Order Asparagales to deal
with.  Thorne calls the same group Orchidales (because that name has
priority).  I disagree with both of these approaches (as well as the
traditional excessive splitting of this clade, on the other hand).
Therefore I propose a second compromise, which I think is more balanced,
less confrontational, and more likely to be broadly adopted:  Orchidales
applied to the basal clade (= Thorne's suborder Orchidineae), and
Asparagales applied to the rest of the group.
     Anyway, here's my classification and cladistic coding at present (no
paraphyly in this one, which should make the strict cladists happy).  Notice
that I have now made Xyridales and Bromeliales sister groups (Rapataceae
belongs in one or the other, but still uncertain which would be best).
Xyridales-Bromeliales (clade 9B-C) makes a fairly nice clade
biogeographically, and hopefully there are some strong characters supporting
this clade as well (we shall see, and as always my classifications are
subject to further "tinkering" with the coding).  There are a total of 14
Orders, which is a little more than APG, but far less than in traditional
classifications.  Comments (as always) are welcome.

CLASS LILIOPSIDEA (monocots)
>   1  Acorales
>   2  Alismatales
>   3  Dioscoreales
>   4  Liliales
>   B  Orchidales (= Orchidineae)
>   C  Asparagales (sensu Kinman 2002)
>   5  Pandanales
>   6  Arecales
>   7  Zingiberales
>   8  Commelinales
>   9  Hydatellales
>   B  Xyridales
>   C  Bromeliales
>  10  Poales (sensu Kinman 2002)
>         1  Typhaceae
>         2  Thurniaceae
>         B  Juncaceae
>         C  Cyperaceae
>         3  Flagellariaceae
>         4  Anarthriaceae
>         5  Centrolepidaceae
>         B  Restionaceae
>         6  Joinvilleaceae
>         7  Ecdeiocoleaceae
>         8  Poaceae



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