Sympetalae

(1828), meaning “with fused petals”, is a descriptive botanical name used in the Eichler, Engler, and Wettstein systems for a group of flowering plants (angiosperms).

[3] Prior to the phylogenic classifications of August Eichler and his successors this group corresponds to the Gamopetalae of Bentham and Hooker, gamopetally being a synonym of sympetally.

[5] Alfred Rendle similarly described Sympetalae as originating from dicots, and then divided them into Pentacyclicae and Tetracyclicae in accordance with the number of flower parts in each group, four and five respectively.

[6] According to Engler and Prantl, Sympetalae includes the following orders: Diapensiales, Ericales, Primulales, Plumbaginales, Ebenales, Contortae, Tubiflorae, Plantaginales, Rubiales, Cucurbitales, and Campanulatae.

[7] Sympetalous flowers are found in many angiosperms, but it was the combination of sympetally with a "stamen whorl isomerous and alternate with the corolla-lobes, or stamens fewer than the corolla lobes" that Takhtajan (1964) used to define the subclass Asteridae, and later by Cronquist (1981), and later, corresponding to the asterids in the modern Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) system, based on molecular phylogenetics.