Asterales

Asterales, daisy order of flowering plants, containing 11 families and some 26,870 species. Asterales is part of the core asterid clade (organisms with a single common ancestor) in the euasterid II group of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III (APG III) botanical classification system. The major families are Asteraceae and Campanulaceae (including Lobeliaceae), with far fewer species in the remaining families of Goodeniaceae, Stylidiaceae, Menyanthaceae, Calyceraceae, Rousseaceae (including Carpodetaceae), Pentaphragmataceae, Alseuosmiaceae, Phellinaceae, and Argophyllaceae. These families have been genetically linked to one another by their common chemical characteristics, such the presence of ellagic acid and inulin, and by their morphological similarities, including a specialized mechanism known as plunger pollination.