the bananas on the basis of large banana-like leaves. For this reason these four families were previously all included in Musaceae, but the exact relationship between them remains some what uncertain; Ginger-families Zingiberaceae, Costaceae, Cannaceae, Marantaceae (the gingers). A monophyletic derived terminal clade with the number of fertile stamens reduced to one (Zingiberaceae, Costaceae) or to one half, with a single theca (Cannaceae, Marantaceae). The remaining components of the androecium develop as four or five elaborate petaloid staminodia, highly modified from sterile stamens. This group may have one (Cannaceae, Marantaceae) or two (Zingiberaceae, Costaceae) anther pollen sacs. The infertile stamina are homologous with the fertile stamina in the bananas and other monocots) but assume the structure and function of petals as pollinator attraction. This group demonstrate complex patterns of fusion among their floral organs including the staminodes. In Zingiberaceae and Costaceae the staminodes fuse to form a staminodial labellum which provides much of the floral display. In general the flowers of this group display higher degrees of organ fusion and specialisation. Phylogeny Using combined morphology and molecular data, Kress and colleagues (1993, 1995, 2001) confirmed the broad separation into two clades based on morphology alone, and produced an infraordinal structure. In this scheme, they divided the families of the order as follows, with the ginger group as one suborder, and the banana group divided amongst three separate suborders: Suborder Zingiberineae Kress ("gingers"; 2 superfamilies) Superfamily Cannariae Kress Cannaceae A.L. Jussieu Marantaceae Petersen Superfamily Zingiberariae Kress Costaceae Nakai Zingiberaceae Lindley Suborder Strelitziineae Kress Lowiaceae Ridley Strelitziaceae Hutchinson Suborder Musineae Kress Musaceae A.L. Jussieu Suborder Heliconiineae Kress Heliconiaceae Nakai While the two sister family groups that constitute the Zingiberineae (Cladogram I) and also the basal Strelitziineae (Strelitziaceae-Lowiaceae) sister group (Cladogram II) were strongly supported, the position of Musaceae and Heliconiaceae were not. In the above model (Model 1), Musaceae appears as the first branching family, and Heliconiaceae placed as sister to the Zingiberineae (Cladogram III). Other studies placed these and the Strelitziaceae-Lowiaceae sister group in a trichotomy with the remaining families. While a revision of the first model (Model 2) placed Heliconiaceae as the first branching lineage with Musaceae in a sister relationship with Strelitziineae, which in turn was sister to Zingiberineae (Cladogram IV). A third model (Model 3) supports Musaceae as the basal group but places Heliconiaceae as sister to Strelitziineae (Cladogram V). The failure to resolve the ancient rapid divergences