What is "orchidales"

Orchidales \Orchidales\ prop. n. An order of plants with irregular flowers having minute seeds, and including the families Orchidaceae and Burmanniaceae.

Syn: order Orchidales.

Orchidales is a botanical name of an order of flowering plants. In taxonomical systems, this is a relatively recent name as early systems used descriptive botanical names for the order containing the orchids. The Bentham & Hooker and the Engler systems had the orchids in order Microspermae while the Wettstein system treats them as order Gynandrae. Circumscription of the order will vary with the taxonomic system being used. Although mostly the order will consist of the orchids only (usually in one family only, but sometimes divided into more families, as in the Dahlgren system, see below), sometimes other families are added: