Well-known members of Apiales include carrots, celery, coriander, parsley, parsnips, poison hemlock, ginseng, ivies, and pittosporums.

[2] The present understanding of the Apiales is fairly recent and is based upon comparison of DNA sequences by phylogenetic methods.

In the classification system of Dahlgren the families Apiaceae and Araliaceae were placed in the order Ariales, in the superorder Araliiflorae (also called Aralianae).

The largest and obviously closely related families of Apiales are Araliaceae, Myodocarpaceae and Apiaceae, which resemble each other in the structure of their gynoecia.

[9] Each of the first three families possess mainly bi- or multilocular ovaries in a gynoecium with a long synascidiate, but very short symplicate zone, where the ovules are inserted at their transition, the so-called cross-zone (or "Querzone").