Celastrales

Celastrales is an order of flowering plants within the eudicots, part of the Rosids clade. In modern classifications such as the APG system, Celastrales is recognized as a relatively small order that includes a handful of families, with Celastraceae as the best known and largest family.

The best-known family is Celastraceae, the spindle-tree family, which includes genera such as Celastrus (bittersweet) and Euonymus (spindle trees). Some classifications also include Goupiaceae and Parnassiaceae within Celastrales, reflecting ongoing revisions as molecular data clarify relationships among these plants.

Members of Celastrales are predominantly woody shrubs and trees, distributed across tropical to temperate regions worldwide, with most diversity occurring in tropical areas. Flowers are typically small and inconspicuous, and fruits are often capsules or berries, sometimes containing distinctive arils or colorful pericarp that aid in seed dispersal.

Economic and ecological significance: Several Celastraceae species are cultivated as ornamentals, notably Euonymus and Celastrus, and some species have traditional medicinal uses or timber value. The order is of interest in botanical phylogenetic studies because of its particular arrangement of fruit types and its position within the core eudicots.

Taxonomic notes: The circumscription of Celastrales has shifted with advances in molecular phylogenetics. In APG systems, it remains a valid order within the core eudicots, with Celastraceae serving as its principal family and occasional inclusion of smaller families such as Goupiaceae and Parnassiaceae in some classifications.