-ā(ˌ)lēz noun plural
Usage: capitalized
Etymology: New Latin, from Gnetum + -ales
: an order of chiefly tropical or xerophytic woody gymnospermous plants that have two cotyledons, opposite leaves, vessels in the wood, and compound male and female strobili, consist of a single family (Gnetaceae), and are practically unknown as fossils but are sometimes considered on structural grounds to be near or on the ancestral line of the angiosperms