List of early-diverging flowering plant families

There are 27 families of flowering plants whose earliest ancestors diverged from what became the two most prominent groups of flowering plants, the eudicots and monocots. They are quite diverse, with woody and non-woody plants, evergreen and deciduous shrubs and trees, and plants that grow in soil, in water and on other plants.

Victoria amazonica has the largest undivided leaf of any plant, up to 2.65 m (8 ft 8 in) in diameter. The parasitic genera Hydnora and Prosopanche are the only flowering plants with no evidence of leaves or scales. Myristica fragrans, the source of nutmeg, was important in the 17th-century spice trade. Amborella may represent the earliest-diverging order of flowering plants.