The
Gunnerales are an order of
flowering plants. In the
APG III system (2009) it contains two genera:
Gunnera (in family
Gunneraceae) and
Myrothamnus (in family
Myrothamnaceae). In the
Cronquist system (1981), the Gunneraceae were in the
Haloragales and Myrothamnaceae in the
Hamamelidales. DNA analysis was definitive, but the grouping of the two families was a surprise, given their very dissimilar morphologies. In Cronquist's old system (1981, 1988), and Takhtajan's (1997), the Gunneraceae were in the Rosidae, and the Myrothamnaceae were in the Hamamelids. In modern classification systems such as APGIII, this order was the first to derive from the core eudicots.