Evolution And Phylogeny Of Flowering Plants

This book covers the hot topics of angiosperm structure and evolution in several chapters discussing vegetative and reproductive characters. It also looks at the implications of ancestral angiosperm characters for an herbaceous origin and the phylogeny of angiosperms from a structure and molecular perspective.

Although they are relative latecomers on the evolutionary scene, having emerged only 135?170 million years ago, angiosperms—or flowering plants—are the most diverse and species-rich group of seed-producing land plants, comprising more than 15,000 genera and over 350,000 species. Not only are they a model group for studying the patterns and processes of evolutionary diversification, they also play major roles in our economy, diet, and courtship rituals, producing our fruits, legumes, and grains, not to mention the flowers in our Valentine’s bouquets. They are also crucial ecologically, dominating most terrestrial and some aquatic landscapes. This fully revised edition of Phylogeny and Evolution of the Angiosperms provides an up-to-date, comprehensive overview of the evolution of and relationships among these vital plants. Incorporating molecular phylogenetics with morphological, chemical, developmental, and paleobotanical data, as well as presenting a more detailed account of early angiosperm fossils and important fossil information for each evolutionary branch of the angiosperms, the new edition integrates fossil evidence into a robust phylogenetic framework. Featuring a wealth of new color images, this highly synthetic work further reevaluates long-held evolutionary hypotheses related to flowering plants and will be an essential reference for botanists, plant systematists, and evolutionary biologists alike.

Factors that determine evolutionary trends. Trends of angiosperm phylogeny.

This book provides a short version of the general classification of flowering plants, together with an exposition of the theory underlying the system.

The original suggestion to organize a symposium about the classi fication and evolution of the Flowering Plants was made at, the International Botanical Congress at Leningrad in 1975, and the idea was so well accepted by several colleagues that plans for such a symposium quickly took shape. An organizing committee consisting of Professor H. MERXMULLER, Miinchen, Professor V. H. HEYWOOD, Reading, and Professor K. KUBITZKI, Hamburg, was set up. The conference took place on 7-12 September 197tl in the Institut fiir Allgemeine Botanik of the University of Hamburg under the auspices of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy and was at tended by 80 participants from 14 countries. There have been several meetings in recent years which have dealt with the origin and evolution of the Flowering Plants so that it might be questioned whether yet another symposium dealing with more or less the same subject were really "justified. As the reader will see from the contents of the book, this symposium differed from similar ones held recently in two respects: 1. Emphasis was given to methodological aspects of the classification of higher taxa, and 2. much classificatory and evolutionary evidence relating to the higher taxa of Flowering Plants was presented.

Takhtajan, one of the foremost authorities on flowering plant evolution, has brought together from the literature and his own studies interpretations of the origin and evolution of various vegetative and reproductive parts of flowering plants. Starting with growth habit, he continues through leaf and stem structure, including the origin of vessels, sieve tubes, and rays, to flowers. After tracing the possible origin of the flower, he discusses in detail the sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels, accounting for their variations in number of parts, fusion, position, and structure. The evolution and origin of the micro- and megagametophytes and the development of triple fusion are considered. The book ends with the developmental sequence of the fruit and seed types. Each chapter has its own extensive bibliography. Takhtajan has produced a book that will be essential in the library of any college where plant evolution is considered.-C. T. Mason Jr., University of Arizona--Choice Reviews.