Abstract/Summary

The data presented in this paper is supporting the research article “Reconstructing an historical pollination syndrome: keel flowers” [1]. We present a dataset containing information on number of species, geographic distribution, floral type (keeled or not), presence or absence of fused petals, floral symmetry, presence or absence of a pentamerous corolla (petals+sepals in Polygalaceae), androecium type, presence or absence of enclosed reproductive organs, presence or absence of three distinct petal types (petals+sepals in Polygalaceae), flower size, corolla and/or filament size, flower colour, UV reflectance, habit, height, inflorescence type and inflorescence size for 758 Fabales genera. The information was obtained from hundreds of appropriate, previously published sources. This the largest morphological dataset constructed for Fabales to date, and the data presented in this article can be used for morphology, biogeography, ancestral state, ancestral area analyses of any Fabales clades.