Illiciaceae in the context of Albert Charles Smith

The basal angiosperms are the flowering plants which diverged from the lineage leading to most flowering plants. In particular, the most basal angiosperms were called the ANITA grade, which is made up of Amborella (a single species of shrub from New Caledonia), Nymphaeales (water lilies, together with some other aquatic plants) and Austrobaileyales (woody aromatic plants including star anise).

ANITA stands for Amborella, Nymphaeales, I lliciales, Trimeniaceae, and Austrobaileya. Some authors have shortened this to ANA-grade for the three orders, Amborellales, Nymphaeales, and Austrobaileyales, since the order Iliciales was reduced to the family Illiciaceae and placed, along with the family Trimeniaceae, within the Austrobaileyales.

Illiciales is an order of flowering plants that is not recognized by the current most widely used system of plant classification, the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group's APG III system. The order was comprised differently in various systems of plant taxonomy, but is composed of 2-4 families of shrubs, trees, and lianas native to Australasia, south eastern Asia, and the southeastern United States. The families all contain species with essential oils, and flowers with a perianth with bracts (when present), sepals, and petals incompletely distinguished from each other and not arranged in definite whorls. The families of the order had been variably placed in other orders (Magnoliales, Austrobaileyales) in different taxonomies.

The Cronquist system, of 1981, recognized Illiciales as an order consisting of the families Illiciaceae and Schisandraceae and placed it in the subclass Magnoliidae, in class Magnoliopsida (or dicotyledons) of division Magnoliophyta (or angiosperms).