Gnetales

noun

chiefly tropical or xerophytic woody plants; practically unknown as fossils but considered close to the ancestral line of angiosperms

• Syn: ↑order Gnetales

• Hypernyms: ↑plant order

• Member Holonyms: ↑Gnetopsida, ↑class Gnetopsida, ↑Gnetophytina, ↑subdivision Gnetophytina, ↑Gnetophyta

• Member Meronyms: ↑Gnetaceae, ↑family Gnetaceae, ↑Ephedraceae, ↑family Ephedraceae, ↑Welwitschiaceae, ↑family Welwitschiaceae

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\\-ā(ˌ)lēz\ noun plural

Usage: capitalized

Etymology: New Latin, from Gnetum + -ales

: an order of chiefly tropical or xerophytic woody gymnospermous plants that have two cotyledons, opposite leaves, vessels in the wood, and compound male and female strobili, consist of a single family (Gnetaceae), and are practically unknown as fossils but are sometimes considered on structural grounds to be near or on the ancestral line of the angiosperms