Peter K Endress

• Professor Emeritus at University of Zurich

Premise of research. Accumulating data from phylogenetic analyses of living taxa and from paleobotany (pollen, leaves, and floral structures) has greatly improved our understanding of the Cretaceous rise to dominance of the angiosperms. Relatives of the near-basal family Chloranthaceae were conspicuous in the Early Cretaceous. These include female...

The near-basal angiosperm family Chloranthaceae (with four living genera) is prominently represented in the Early Cretaceous fossil record by pollen and flowers, but its leaves, other vegetative parts and inflorescences are less well known. Here, we report impressions of leaves, stems and inflorescences from the middle–late Albian Escucha Formation...

Alexander Moritzi (1806–1850) is one of the most obscure figures in the early history of evolutionary thought. Best known for authoring a flora of Switzerland, Moritzi also published Réflexions sur l’espèce en histoire naturelle (1842), a remarkable book about evolution with an overtly materialist viewpoint. In this work, Moritzi argues that the (t...

Different kinds of synchronization of flowering, and of male and female function, have evolved in many angiosperms. The most complex patterns are heterodichogamy, pseudoheterodichogamy and duodichogamy. In this review, their occurrence across angiosperms is shown and the diversity in heterodichogamy and duodichogamy is outlined. Heterodichogamy is...

Premise of research. This is the first comparative study of inflorescence morphology through all seven families of the order Laurales (Atherospermataceae, Calycanthaceae, Gomortegaceae, Hernandiaceae, Lauraceae, Monimiaceae, and Siparunaceae) and the larger subclades of these families. Methodology. We studied 89 species of 39 genera from herbarium...

With 145 species, Turnera is the largest genus of Turneraceae (Malpighiales). Despite several morphotaxonomic and cytogenetic studies, our knowledge about the phylogenetic relationships in Turnera remains mainly based on morphological data. Here, we reconstruct the most comprehensive phylogeny of Turnera with molecular data to understand the morpho...

Carpels and ovules have been differently interpreted over the past two centuries. In this review, some of these interpretations are highlighted, with particular emphasis on the current situation. Ovules are part of and are enclosed in carpels in all living angiosperms. Living angiosperms are monophyletic, and the evolutionary association between ov...

Loropetalum flavum (Hamamelidaceae) is described and illustrated as a new species from Bat Dai Son Mountains situated in the northern Vietnam. Recently discovered plant was observed as a typical element of the rich primary forest found on the highly eroded karstic limestone mountain formations allied to the border with China. The new species is cha...

Premise of research. Fruit structure, in contrast to flower structure, has not been the subject of detailed comparative studies in many angiosperm lineages. This study focuses on fruit morphology, anatomy, and histology of the family Calycanthaceae (Laurales), including all genera: Calycanthus (including Sinocalycanthus), Chimonanthus, andIdiosperm...

Chloranthaceae were one of the first common lines during the early radiation of angiosperms, possibly reflecting adaptation to more open habitats. Phylogenetic analyses clarify the position of Cretaceous mesofossils in molecular trees of Recent taxa. Plants that produced Asteropollis pollen, with tepals adnate to a single carpel, are nested in crow...

This fully revised edition of Phylogeny and Evolution of the Angiosperms provides an up-to-date, comprehensive overview of the evolution of and relationship among these vital plants. Incorporating molecular phylogenetics with morphological, chemical, developmental, and paleobotanical data, as well as presenting a more detailed account of early angi...

Based on morphological characters the monogeneric family Eupomatiaceae has been traditionally included in Magnoliales, closely related to Magnoliaceae, Himantandraceae or Annonaceae. This is well supported by molecular phylogenetic studies, and Eupomatiaceae appear strongly supported as sister to Annonaceae. Some specific characters of reproductive...

Recent advances in molecular phylogenetics and a series of important palaeobotanical discoveries have revolutionized our understanding of angiosperm diversification. Yet, the origin and early evolution of their most characteristic feature, the flower, remains poorly understood. In particular, the structure of the ancestral flower of all living angi...

Disanthus ovatifolius discovered in northwestern Vietnam is described as a new species of Hamamelidaceae, subfamily Disanthoideae. The new species belongs to the genus Disanthus, which was represented only by the type species of the genus, D. cercidifolius, until now. The new species differs from its congener in a series of morphological characters...

Clusia shows high infrageneric and sometimes infraspecific diversity in growth form, floral morphology and pollination biology. Species offering floral resin as a reward to pollinating bees often show unique androecial structures. We investigate the stamen structure of two groups of Clusia with resin flowers and anthers with numerous locelli: all t...

ABSTRACT This work provides a summary of the typical floral structure of subtribe Hyptidinae (Lamiaceae), in which both style and stamens are declinate within or near the concave anterior corolla lobe. Cross-pollination is facilitated by protandry, acting in conjunction with the explosive release of the stamens and pollen. In contrast, we report th...

Explosive diversification is widespread in eukaryotes, making it difficult to resolve phylogenetic relationships. Eudicots contain c . 75% of extant flowering plants, are important for human livelihood and terrestrial ecosystems, and have probably experienced explosive diversifications. The eudicot phylogenetic relationships, especially among those...

Pseudoasterophyllites cretaceus from the Cenomanian of Bohemia was recently recognized as an angiosperm by association with stamens containing monosulcate pollen of the Tucanopollis type. New material indicates that the stamens were borne in short spikes, with each stamen subtended by a bract, whereas the carpels were solitary and contained a singl...

A flower from the early Cenomanian of northeastern Maryland, Cecilanthus polymerus gen. et sp. nov., is described using SEM and synchrotron X-ray microtomography. The flower has >20 strap-shaped tepals, ca. 50 spatulate stamens with embedded adaxial pollen sacs and possibly H-valvate dehiscence, and ca. 100 more-or-less plicate carpels. Floral phyl...

Sinowilsonia is an isolated genus, with a single species S. henryi, which forms a shrub or small tree in cultivation. Its position within the family Hamamelidaceae is discussed. The flowers and leaves are illustrated, and its cultivation is described.

Euptelea pleiosperma J.D. Hooker & Thomson is illustrated, both in flower and fruit; its pollination and floral anatomy are discussed, and the systematic position of the family Eupteleaceae is clarified using recent molecular phylogenetic studies.

New morphological and phylogenetic data prompt us to present an updated review of floral morphology and its evolution in the basal ANITA grade of living angiosperms, Chloranthaceae, and Ceratophyllum. Floral phyllotaxis is complex whorled in Nymphaeales and spiral in Amborella and Austrobaileyales. It is unresolved whether phyllotaxis was ancestral...

New morphological and phylogenetic data prompt us to present an updated review of floral morphology and its evolution in the basal ANITA grade of living angiosperms, Chloranthaceae, and Ceratophyllum. Floral phyllotaxis is complex whorled in Nymphaeales and spiral in Amborella and Austrobaileyales. It is unresolved whether phyllotaxis was ancestral...

Apocynaceae and Orchidaceae are two angiosperm families with extreme flower synorganization. They are unrelated, the former in eudicots, the latter in monocots, but they converge in the formation of pollinia and pollinaria, which do not occur in any other angiosperm family, and for which extreme synorganization of floral organs is a precondition. I...

Almost all angiosperms are angiospermous, i.e. the ovules are enclosed in carpels at anthesis and during seed development, but angiospermy develops in different ways across angiosperms. The most common means of carpel closure is by a longitudinal ventral slit in carpels that are partly or completely free. In such carpels, the closure process common...

Background and Aims Icacinaceae sensu stricto consist of a group of early branching lineages of lamiids whose relationships are not yet resolved and whose detailed floral morphology is poorly known. The most bizarre flowers occur in Emmotum: the gynoecium has three locules on one side and none on the other. It has been interpreted as consisting of...

Background and Aims Species in the holoparasitic plant family Rafflesiaceae exhibit one of the most highly modified vegetative bodies in flowering plants. Apart from the flower shoot and associated bracts, the parasite is a mycelium-like endophyte living inside their grapevine hosts. This study provides a comprehensive treatment of the endophytic...

Premise of research. Discoveries of fossil flowers in Cretaceous rocks offer improved evidence for relationships with living clades, but for more secure inferences formal phylogenetic analyses are desirable. We extend previous analyses of magnoliids, monocots, and basal eudicots to Aptian, Albian, and Cenomanian fossils related to the basal “ANITA”...

The holoparasitic plant family Rafflesiaceae include the world's largest flowers. Despite their iconic status, relatively little is known about the morphology and development of their flowers. A recent study clarified the organization of the outer (sterile) floral organs, surprisingly revealing that their distinctive floral chambers arose via diffe...

Most angiosperms have gynoecia with two to five carpels. However, more than five carpels (here termed ‘multicarpellate condition’) are present in some representatives of all larger subclades of angiosperms. In such multicarpellate gynoecia, the carpels are in either one or more than one whorl (or series). I focus especially on gynoecia in which the...

Significance Rafflesiaceae produce the world’s largest flowers, but the developmental nature of their floral organs has remained a mystery. Most members of the family have a large floral chamber, which encloses their reproductive organs. We used comparative studies of development and gene-expression patterns to investigate the homology of their flo...

In molecular phylogenetic studies, Lophopyxidaceae and Putranjivaceae are well supported as sisters in the large rosid order Malpighiales. As the floral structure of both families is poorly known and the two families have never been compared, the present comparative study was carried out, as part of a larger project on the comparative floral struct...

Flowers of extant Quintinia are described in detail on the basis of field observations and serial microtome sections and compared with flowers of the Late Cretaceous Silvianthemum suecicum and Bertilanthus scanicus on the basis of new analyses of the fossil material. The analyses of both extant and fossil material also include synchrotron-based X-r...

All Illicium spp. have explosive fruits, which is a unique character among the basal grade of angiosperms. Illicium fruits consist of several ventrally dehiscing follicles developing from conduplicate carpels, with a prominent, slightly postgenitally fused ventral slit. The closure of the ventral slit is also secured by two mirror‐symmetrical massi...

Background and Aims Malpighiales are one of the largest angiosperm orders and have undergone radical systematic restructuring based on molecular phylogenetic studies. The clade has been recalcitrant to molecular phylogenetic reconstruction, but has become much more resolved at the suprafamilial level. It now contains so many newly identified clades...

Premise of the study: Investigations of inflorescence architecture offer insight into the evolution of an astounding array of reproductive shoot systems in the angiosperms, as well as the potential to genetically manipulate these branching patterns to improve crop yield and enhance the aesthetics of horticultural species. The diversity of inflores...

Background and Aims Most genera of the neotropical Galipeinae (tribe Galipeeae, Rutoideae) exhibit several forms and degrees of fusion between the floral organs, including the union of petals into an apparently sympetalous corolla, the joining of the stamens among themselves and to the corolla, and the partial to complete connation of carpels. Thou...

Floral monosymmetry and asymmetry are traced through the angiosperm orders and families. Both are diverse and widespread in angiosperms. The systematic distribution of the different forms of monosymmetry and asymmetry indicates that both evolved numerous times. Elaborate forms occur in highly synorganized flowers. Less elaborate forms occur by curv...

Ochnaceae s.l. (Ochnaceae, Quiinaceae and Medusagynaceae), one of the well-supported subclades of the large order Malpighiales retrieved so far in molecular phylogenetic studies, were comparatively studied with regard to floral structure using microtome section series and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Floral morphology, anatomy and histology...

The angiosperm order Malpighiales includes ∼16,000 species and constitutes up to 40% of the understory tree diversity in tropical rain forests. Despite remarkable progress in angiosperm systematics during the last 20 y, relationships within Malpighiales remain poorly resolved, possibly owing to its rapid rise during the mid-Cretaceous. Using phylog...

The floral development of Phyllanthus chekiangensis has been studied by scanning electron microscopy. The perianth organs are initiated in two whorls, dimerous in male flowers and trimerous in female flowers, with a longer plastochron between whorls than between the organs within a whorl. Male flowers have two stamens. The prominent connective prot...

Preliminary field observations in 2001 and 2002 suggested that Kingdonia uniflora (Circaeasteraceae, Ranunculales) exhibits heterodichogamy, an unusual kind of reproductive heteromorphy, hitherto unreported in Ranunculales and known from only one other genus in basal eudicots. During several subsequent years flowers were observed in the field. Flow...

Floral features used for characterization of higher-level angiosperm taxa (families, orders, and above) are assessed following a comparison of earlier (precladistic/premolecular) and current classifications. Cronquist (An integrated system of classification of flowering plants. Columbia University Press, New York, 1981) and APG (Angiosperm Phylogen...

For the last 20 years, the development and improvement of molecular methods, based mostly on the comparison of DNA sequences, have been increasingly successful in reconstructing the phylogenetic tree of plants at all hierarchical levels. Consequently, they have contributed greatly to the recent improvement of angiosperm systematics. In addition, th...

Introduction The origin of the angiosperm flower and its subsequent evolution have been major topics of discussion and controversy for over a century. Because so many of the distinctive synapomorphies of angiosperms involve the flower, its origin and the homologies of its parts are closely tied to the vexed problem of the origin of angiosperms as a...

Introduction For the last 20 years, the development and improvement of molecular methods, based mostly on the comparison of DNA sequences, have been increasingly successful in reconstructing the phylogenetic tree of plants at all hierarchical levels. Consequently, they have contributed greatly to the recent improvement of angiosperm systematics. In...

Background and Aims Anaxagorea is the phylogenetically basalmost genus in the large tropical Annonaceae (custard apple family) of Magnoliales, but its floral structure is unknown in many respects. The aim of this study is to analyse evolutionarily interesting floral features in comparison with other genera of the Annonaceae and the sister family Eu...

Within the rosid order Malpighiales, Rhizophoraceae and Erythroxylaceae (1) are strongly supported as sisters in molecular phylogenetic studies and possibly form a clade with either Ctenolophonaceae (2) or with Linaceae, Irvingiaceae and Caryocaraceae (less well supported) (3). In order to assess the validity of these relationships from a floral st...

Ovules as developmental precursors of seeds are organs of central importance in angiosperm flowers and can be traced back in evolution to the earliest seed plants. Angiosperm ovules are diverse in their position in the ovary, nucellus thickness, number and thickness of integuments, degree and direction of curvature, and histological differentiation...

Floral Diagrams: An Aid to Understanding Flower Morphology and Evolution. Ronse De CraeneLouis P. . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010. xv + 441 pp. ISBN 978 0521 72945 1, £35 (paperback); ISBN 978 0521 49346 8, £75 (hardback). - Volume 68 Issue 1 - P. K. Endress

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 biological environment (vegetation, interaction with other organisms) and by internal structural constraints and potentials. This review focuses on the development and str...

h e origin of the angiosperm l ower and its subsequent evolution have been major topics of discussion and controversy for over a century. Because so many of the distinctive synapomorph ies of angiosperms involve the l ower, its origin and the homologies of its parts are closely tied to the vexed problem of the origin of angiosperms as a group. From...

The role of flowers in evolutionary biology has changed in the past 20 years, as the major foci are constantly changing with new approaches and better understanding of evolutionary processes. The revolution of molecular phylogenetics and molecular developmental genetics produced a trend in flower studies away from phylogenetics and towards evolutio...

Eudicots and their currently recognized major subclades are characterized as to floral structure (including some “embryological” features) based on ca. 3000 original publications. A new classification of nucelli is presented. In particular, the distinction between tenuinucellar and incompletely tenuinucellar ovules has proven to be useful for the c...

Synorganisation of floral organs, an important means in angiosperm flower evolution, is mostly realized by congenital or post-genital organ fusion. Intimate synorganisation of many floral organs without fusion, as present in Geranium robertianum, is poorly known and needs to be studied. Obdiplostemony, the seemingly reversed position of two stamen...

Morphological variation in Ephedra (Gnetales) is limited and confusing from an evolutionary perspective, with parallelisms and intraspecific variation. However, recent analyses of molecular data provide a phylogenetic framework for investigations of morphological traits, albeit with few informative characters in the investigated gene regions. We do...

Abstract Terminology of inflorescence diversity has often been used in a confusing way in the literature, partly because it was based on uncritical and outdated definitions. In particular, the terms cyme, thyrse, and panicle have been misused. Although a more critical classification worked out by several authors is available, it is unfortunately no...

In basal angiosperms (including ANITA grade, magnoliids, Choranthaceae, Ceratophyllaceae) almost all bisexual flowers are dichogamous (with male and female functions more or less separated in time), and nearly 100 per cent of those are protogynous (with female function before male function). Movements of floral parts and differential early abscissi...

Over the past 25 years, discoveries of Early Cretaceous fossil flowers, often associated with pollen and sometimes with vegetative parts, have revolutionized our understanding of the morphology and diversity of early angiosperms. However, few of these fossils have been integrated into the increasingly robust phylogeny of living angiosperms based pr...

Floral monosymmetry, which is conspicuous and prominent in many angiosperms, has attracted much attention from both developmental geneticists and pollination biologists. A combined evolutionary biological approach to studying floral monosymmetry in the Lamiales, the order that contains the model plant Antirrhinum, is just beginning to take shape. I...

Floral development and floral phyllotaxis in species of Adonis, Callianthemum, and Trollius (Ranunculaceae) were studied with scanning electron microscopy. The floral organs are initiated in spiral sequence and the flowers have spiral phyllotaxis. The sepal primordia are broad, crescent-shaped, and truncate, but those of petals, stamens, and carpel...

The floral development of two Clematis species and four Anemone species (including Pulsatilla) (Anemoneae, Ranunculaceae) is described. Shared features are: (1) sepals shortly after initiation broad, crescent-shaped, as opposed to the other organs, which are narrow and hemispherical; (2) outermost organs of the androecium often smaller than the oth...

* Diplostigmaty, the presence of a primary (apical) stigma and secondary (mid-stylar) stigmas along the style, is only known from the genus Sebaea (Gentianaceae). Early work indicated that the secondary stigmas provide a mechanism of autogamy, suggesting that it might ensure reproductive assurance. * Here, we test the monophyly of this unique morph...

The structure and late development of the flowers of the South-East Asian bee-pollinated palm Licuala peltata are described with special focus on the architecture of the unusual labyrinthine nectaries. The nectaries are derived from septal nectaries by extensive convolution of the carpel flank surfaces below the ovary throughout the inner floral ba...

Floral phyllotaxis of Laurales (Magnoliidae) is poorly and sometimes conflictingly documented, especially in the pluricarpellate families of the core Laurales (Gomortegaceae, Atherospermataceae, Siparunaceae, Monimiaceae). In this study four types of floral phyllotaxis were recovered: Fibonacci spiral, simple-whorled (decussate), complex-whorled, a...

Anacardiaceae and Burseraceae are traditionally distinguished by the number of ovules (1 vs. 2) per locule and the direction of ovule curvature (syntropous vs. antitropous). Recent molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that these families are sister groups in Sapindales after having been separated in different orders for a long time. We present...

Anacardiaceae and Burseraceae are traditionally distinguished by the number of ovules (1 vs. 2) per locule and the direction of ovule curvature (syntropous vs. antitropous). Recent molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that these families are sister groups in Sapindales after having been separated in different orders for a long time. We present...