Angiosperms and their flowers have greatly diversified into an overwhelming array of forms
in the past 135 million years. Diversification was shaped by changes in climate and the …

Flower morphology results from the interaction of an established genetic program, the
influence of external forces induced by pollination systems, and physical forces acting …

Why do unrelated organisms sometimes appear almost identical in details of the anatomy,
behavior, physiology, and ecology? Homoplasy assembles leaders in evolutionary biology …

Symmetry is a defining feature of floral diversity. Here we review the evolutionary and
ecological context of floral symmetry (adding new data regarding its distribution), as well as …

Eudicots and their currently recognized major subclades are characterized as to floral
structure (including some “embryological” features) based on ca. 3000 original publications …

Phylogenetic relationships among many lineages of angiosperms have been clarified via
the analysis of large molecular data sets. However, with a data set of three genes (18S …

Merism in flowers is the result of a combination of a whorled phyllotaxis, the proportion of
relative sizes of floral organs and flower meristem, and pressures from external organs …

The evolution of selected characters of the perianth, androecium, and gynoecium was
reconstructed on a modification of the recent three-gene topology for angiosperms to …

Different approaches to circumscribe staminodial structures in the angiosperms are
reviewed. The need for a morphological distinction between “true staminodes”(derived from …

Contents Summary 70 I. Introduction 70 II. What is the floral ground plan? 71 III. Diversity
and evolution of the floral ground plan 72 IV. Genetic mechanisms 77 V. What's next? 82 …