A new species of Syzygium Gaertn. (Myrtaceae), Syzygiumpyneei Byng, V. Florens & Baider, is described from Mondrain Reserve on the island of Mauritius. This species is endemic to the island and differs from any other species by its combination of cauliflory, relatively large flowers, light green to cream hypanthium, light pink stamens, short thick petioles, coriaceous leaves and round, cuneate ...

Electrostatic phenomena are known to enhance both wind- and insect-mediated pollination, but have not yet been described for nectar-feeding vertebrates. Here we demonstrate that wild Anna's Hummingbirds (Calypte anna) can carry positive charges up to 800 pC while in flight (mean ± s.d.: 66 ± 129 pC). Triboelectric charging obtained by rubbing an isolated hummingbird wing against various plant s...

Archaefructaceae is proposed as a new basal angiosperm family of herbaceous aquatic plants. This family consists of the fossils Archaefructus liaoningensis and A. sinensis sp. nov. Complete plants from roots to fertile shoots are known. Their age is a minimum of 124.6 million years from the Yixian Formation, Liaoning, China. They are a sister clade to all angiosperms when their characters are i...

The popular ornamental flowering plant Dianthus hybrida cv. Telstar Scarlet has been found to exhibit two populations, each with distinct flower morphology: female-like and hermaphroditic. In this work, development of D. was characterized through scanning electron microscopy, light- or stereo- from meristem formation the fully matured, open flower. difference between hermaphrodite plants initia...

Protocols for the production and transformation of grapevine embryogenic cultures are described. Embryogenic cultures are initiated from leaves or stamens and pistils and transformed with Agrobacterium containing an enhanced green fluorescent protein/neomycin phosphotransferase II (egfp/nptII) fusion gene. Cultures are transferred to induction medium in the dark for callus formation and prolife...

BACKGROUND The aim of this paper is to discuss the controversial origins of petals from tepals or stamens and the links between the morphological expression of petals and floral organ identity genes in the core eudicots. SCOPE I challenge the widely held classical view that petals are morphologically derived from stamens in the core eudicots, and sepals from tepals or bracts. Morphological da...

Gibberellin (GA) and jasmonate (JA) are two types of phytohormones that play important roles during stamen development. For example, Arabidopsis plants deficient in either of GA or JA develop short stamens. An apparent question to ask is whether GA action and JA action during stamen filament development are independent of each other or are in a hierarchy. Recent studies showed that GA modulates...

Sexual systems are highly variable in flowering plants and an important contributor to floral diversity. The ranunculid genus Thalictrum is especially well-suited to study evolutionary transitions in sexual systems. Homeotic transformation of sexual organs (stamens and carpels) is a plausible mechanism for the transition from hermaphroditic to unisexual flowers in this lineage because flowers o...

The new species Commicarpus altus Thulin from central Somalia and C. ogadenensis southeastern Ethiopia are described, illustrated mapped. Both shrubs with succulent leaves white flowers, they have previously been treated as forms of the widespread variable plumbagineus (Cav.) Standl. is found on gypseous or saline ground at elevations 125–150 m a.s.l., whereas seems to be entirely confined gyps...