Anthophyta

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates The anthophytes are a paraphyletic grouping of plant taxa bearing flower-like reproductive structures. The group, once thought to be a clade,<ref name="Doyle Donoghue 1986"/> contained the angiosperms – the extant flowering plants, such as roses and grasses – as well as the Gnetales and the extinct Bennettitales.<ref name="Doyle Donoghue 1986">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Detailed morphological and molecular studies have shown that the group is not actually monophyletic,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> with proposed floral homologies of the gnetophytes and the angiosperms having evolved in parallel.<ref name=Crepet2000/> This makes it easier to reconcile molecular clock data that suggests that the angiosperms diverged from the gymnosperms around 320-300 mya.<ref name=Nam2003>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Some more recent studies have used the word anthophyte to describe a hypothetical group which includes the angiosperms and a variety of extinct seed plant groups (with various suggestions including at least some of the following groups: glossopterids, corystosperms, Petriellales Pentoxylales, Bennettitales and Caytoniales), but not the Gnetales.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>