ἀγγεῖον ('container, vessel') and σπέρμα ('seed'): the seeds are enclosed within a fruit.
Plants that bear flowers and fruits. Most diverse group of land plants with 64 orders, 416 families, approximately 13,000 known genera and 300,000 known species.
The basal angiosperms are the flowering plants which diverged from the lineage leading to most flowering plants. In particular, the most basal angiosperms were called the ANITA grade, which is made up of Amborella (a single species of shrub from New Caledonia), Nymphaeales (water lilies, together with some other aquatic plants) and Austrobaileyales (woody aromatic plants including star anise).
ANITA stands for Amborella, Nymphaeales, Illiciales, Trimeniaceae, and Austrobaileya. Some authors have shortened this to ANA-grade for the three orders, Amborellales, Nymphaeales, and Austrobaileyales, since the order Iliciales was reduced to the family Illiciaceae and placed, along with the family Trimeniaceae, within the Austrobaileyales.
