The anthophytes were thought to be a clade

Clade

A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...

 comprising plants bearing flower-like structures. The group contained the angiosperms - the extant flowering plants - as well as the Gnetales and the extinct Bennettitales

Bennettitales

Bennettitales is an extinct order of seed plants that first appeared in the Triassic period and became extinct toward the end of the Cretaceous...

.

Detailed morphological and molecular studies have shown that the group is not actually monophyletic. This makes it easier to reconcile molecular clock data that suggests that the angiosperms diverged from the gymnosperms around .

Some more recent studies have used the word anthophyte to describe a group which includes the angiosperms and a variety of fossils (glossopterids

Glossopteris

Glossopteris is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct order of seed ferns known as Glossopteridales ....

, Pentoxylon, Bennettitales

Bennettitales

Bennettitales is an extinct order of seed plants that first appeared in the Triassic period and became extinct toward the end of the Cretaceous...

, and Caytonia), but not the Gnetales.