Kazakhstan Has an Unexpected Diversity of Medicinal Plants of the Genus (Acoraceae) and Could Be a Cradle of the Triploid Species .

The group, or sweet flag, includes important medicinal plants and is classified into three species: (diploid), (tetraploid), and (sterile triploid of hybrid origin). Members of the group are famous as components of traditional Indian medicine, and early researchers suggested the origin of the sweet flag in tropical Asia. Subsequent research led to an idea of the origin of the triploid in the Amur River basin in temperate Asia, because this was the only region where both diploids and tetraploids were known to co-occur and be capable of sexual reproduction.

The sexual lability hypothesis for the origin of the land plant generation cycle.

The evolution of the land plant alternation of generations has been an open question for the past 150 years. Two hypotheses have dominated the discussion: the antithetic hypothesis, which posits that the diploid sporophyte generation arose de novo and gradually increased in complexity, and the homologous hypothesis, which holds that land plant ancestors had independently living sporophytes and haploid gametophytes of similar complexity. Changes in ploidy levels were unknown to early researchers.

Patterns of Carpel Structure, Development, and Evolution in Monocots.

The phenomenon of heterochrony, or shifts in the relative timing of ontogenetic events, is important for understanding many aspects of plant evolution, including applied issues such as crop yield. In this paper, we review heterochronic shifts in the evolution of an important floral organ, the carpel. The carpels, being ovule-bearing organs, facilitate fertilisation, seed, and fruit formation.

Reproductive development of common buckwheat ( Moench) and its wild relatives provides insights into their evolutionary biology.

Introduction: Understanding the complex inflorescence architecture and developmental morphology of common buckwheat () is crucial for crop yield. However, most published descriptions of early flower and inflorescence development in Polygonaceae are based on light microscopy and often documented by line drawings. In and many other Polygonaceae, an important inflorescence module is the thyrse, in which the primary axis never terminates in a flower and lateral cymes (monochasia) produce successively developing flowers of several orders.

Refined Interpretation of the Pistillate Flower in Sheds Fresh Light on Gynoecium Evolution in Angiosperms.

Molecular phylogenetic analyses have revealed a superclade of mesangiosperms with five extant lineages: monocots, eudicots, magnoliids, and Chloranthaceae. Both and Chloranthaceae are ancient lineages with a long fossil record; their precise placement within mesangiosperms is uncertain. Morphological studies have suggested that they form a clade together with some Cretaceous fossils, including , and .

Evolutionary history of the grass gynoecium.

The grass family (Poaceae) includes cereal crops that provide a key food source for the human population. The food industry uses the starch deposited in the cereal grain, which develops directly from the gynoecium. Morphological interpretation of the grass gynoecium remains controversial.

Pollen in water of unstable salinity: Evolution and function of dynamic apertures in monocot aquatics.

Premise: The sporoderm of seed-plant pollen grains typically has apertures in which the outer sporopollenin-bearing layer is relatively sparse. The apertures allow regulation of the internal volume of the pollen grain during desiccation and rehydration (harmomegathy) and also serve as sites of pollen germination. A small fraction of angiosperms undergo pollination in water or at the water surface, where desiccation is unlikely.

When Morphology and Biogeography Approximate Nuclear ITS but Conflict with Plastid Phylogeny: Phylogeography of the Species Complex (Leguminosae).

s.l. is a complex of taxa traditionally regarded as members of .

Pollen Production of Selected Grass Species in Russia and India at the Levels of Anther, Flower and Inflorescence.

Grasses produce large amounts of pollen and are among the main causes of pollen allergy worldwide. Quantification of the roles of individual grass species in airborne pollen is an important task, because morphologically indistinguishable pollen grains of different species may differ in allergenicity. This requires knowledge of the pollen production of individual grass species; however, accumulated data are insufficient in this respect.

Flower and Spikelet Construction in Rapateaceae (Poales).

The family Rapateaceae represents an early-divergent lineage of Poales with biotically pollinated showy flowers. We investigate developmental morphology and anatomy in all three subfamilies and five tribes of Rapateaceae to distinguish between contrasting hypotheses on spikelet morphology and to address questions on the presence of nectaries and gynoecium structure. We support an interpretation of the partial inflorescence (commonly termed spikelet), as a uniaxial system composed of a terminal flower and numerous empty phyllomes.

, a Naturally Occurring Mutant of , and Its Implications on the Evolution of Petal Loss in Cruciferae.

Naturally occurring mutants whose phenotype recapitulates the changes that distinguish closely related species are of special interest from the evolutionary point of view. They can give a key about the genetic control of the changes that led to speciation. In this study, we described (), a naturally occurring variety of an allotetraploid species that is characterized by the typical loss of all four petals.

Two centuries from species discovery to diagnostic characters: molecular and morphological evidence for narrower species limits in the widespread SW Australian complex (Restionaceae s.l./Anarthriaceae, Poales).

Background: The extreme southwest of Australia is a biodiversity hotspot region that has a Mediterranean-type climate and numerous endemic plant and animal species, many of which remain to be properly delimited. We refine species limits in , a Western Australian endemic genus characterised by the occurrence of the greatest number of plesiomorphic character states in the restiid clade of Poales. In contrast to many other groups of wind-pollinated Australian Poales, was traditionally viewed as having well-established species limits.

Phylogenetic Placement and Phylogeography of Large-Flowered Species (Leguminosae) Formerly Classified in : Evidence of Pre-Pleistocene Differentiation of Western and Eastern Intraspecific Groups.

The Mediterranean region is a center of species and genetic diversity of many plant groups, which served as a source of recolonization of temperate regions of Eurasia in Holocene. We investigate the evolutionary history of species currently classified in sect. in the context of the evolution of the genus as a whole, using phylogenetic, phylogeographic and dating analyses.

Flower structure and development in Vietnamese (Triuridaceae: Pandanales): refined knowledge of the morphological misfit family and implications for taxonomy.

The monocot family Triuridaceae is a morphological misfit with respect to several traits of floral morphology, including the uniformly apocarpous polymerous gynoecium and the famous inside-out flowers of . Although Triuridaceae are crucially important for understanding the floral evolution of Pandanales and angiosperms in general, significant knowledge gaps exist which hamper adequate morphological analysis of flowers in this family. The scarcity of morphological data is also reflected in numerous taxonomic inconsistencies.

Stability Despite Reduction: Flower Structure, Patterns of Receptacle Elongation and Organ Fusion in (Eriocaulaceae: Poales).

Eriocaulaceae (Poales) differ from potentially related Xyridaceae in pattern of floral organ arrangement relative to subtending bract (with median sepal adaxial). Some Eriocaulaceae possess reduced and non-trimerous perianth, but developmental data are insufficient. We conducted a SEM investigation of flower development in three species of to understand whether organ number and arrangement are stable in , a species with a highly reduced calyx and reportedly missing corolla.

Developmental Flower and Rhizome Morphology in (Nymphaeales): An Interplay of Chaos and Stability.

European species of are amongthe most accessible members of the basal angiosperm grade, but detailed studies using scanning electron microscopy are lacking. We provide such data and discuss them in the evolutionary context. Dorsiventral monopodial rhizomes of bear foliage leaves and non-axillary reproductive units (RUs) arranged in a Fibonacci spiral.

Staminate flower of Prunus s. l. (Rosaceae) from Eocene Rovno amber (Ukraine).

The late Eocene ambers provide plethora of animal and plant fossils including well-preserved angiosperm flowers from the Baltic amber. The Rovno amber from NW Ukraine resembles in many aspects the Baltic amber; however, only fossilized animals and some bryophytes have yet been studied from the Rovno amber. We provide the first detailed description of an angiosperm flower from Rovno amber.

Magnetic energy transient growth in the subcritical Kazantsev model.

We study average magnetic field growth in a mirror-symmetrical Kazantsev turbulent flow near the dissipative scales. Our main attention is directed to a subcritical regime, when an exponential decrease of magnetic energy is usually expected. We show that instead of damping, transient energy growth can be obtained, for example, in stochastic processes supported by the large-scale magnetic fields.

Gradual vs. abrupt reduction of carpels in syncarpous gynoecia: A case study from Polyscias subg. Arthrophyllum (Araliaceae: Apiales).

Premise Of The Study: Revealing the relative roles of gradual and abrupt transformations of morphological characters is an important topic of evolutionary biology. Gynoecia apparently consisting of one carpel have evolved from pluricarpellate syncarpous gynoecia in several angiosperm clades. The process of reduction can involve intermediate stages, with one fertile and one or more sterile carpels (pseudomonomery).

Morphological diversity and evolution of Centrolepidaceae (Poales), a species-poor clade with diverse body plans and developmental patterns.

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Premise Of The Study: The small primarily Australian commelinid monocot family Centrolepidaceae displays remarkably high structural diversity that has been hitherto relatively poorly explored. Data on Centrolepidaceae are important for comparison with other Poales, including grasses and sedges.•

Methods: We examined vegetative and reproductive morphology in a global survey of Centrolepidaceae based on light and scanning electron microscopy of 18 species, representing all three genera.

Pollination of Vietnamese Aspidistra xuansonensis (Asparagaceae) by female Cecidomyiidi flies: larvae of pollinator feed on fertile pollen in anthers of anthetic bisexual flowers.

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Premise Of The Study: Aspidistra is a species-rich, herbaceous monocot genus of tropical Southeast Asia. Most species are recently discovered and apparently endangered, though virtually nothing is known about their biology. Species of the genus are primarily distinguished using flower morphology, which is enormously diverse.