Amentiferae

: The group is "artificial" because catkin-bearing evolved convergently. For instance, Salicaceae is now known to be unrelated to the "core" amentiferous plants and is placed in the order Malpighiales.

: Male flowers (and sometimes female) are borne in catkins —tassel-like, often pendulous spikes of reduced flowers. amentiferae

Members were grouped together based on a specific suite of reproductive features suited for wind pollination (): : The group is "artificial" because catkin-bearing evolved

Contemporary research, such as the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) classification, has dismantled the Amentiferae as a formal taxon: Members were grouped together based on a specific

(or Amentaceae) is a historically significant but now largely obsolete botanical group of woody plants characterized by bearing catkins (aments). While once considered a natural evolutionary group, modern molecular phylogenetics has revealed it to be an artificial collection of unrelated families that independently evolved similar wind-pollination traits. Historical Classification and "Canonical" Families