The rise of angiosperms has been regarded as a trigger for the Cretaceous revolution of terrestrial ecosystems. However, the timeframe of the rise angiosperm-dominated herbaceous floras (ADHFs) is lacking. Here, we used the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) as a proxy to provide insights into the rise of ADHFs. An integration of phylogenetic, molecular dating, ancestral state inferring, and dive...

The buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, comprising more than 2,200 species in at least 62 genera, mostly herbs, has long been used in folk medicine and worldwide ethnomedicine since the beginning of human civilization. Various medicinal phytometabolites have been found in Ranunculaceae plants, many of which, such as alkaloids, terpenoids, saponins, and polysaccharides, have shown anti-cancer activ...

Wood anatomy of 14 species of Clematis and one species each of Delphinium, Helleborus, Thalictrum, and Xanthorhiza (Ranunculaceae) is compared to that of Glaucidium palma tum (Glaucidiaceae) and Hydrastis canadensis (Ranunculaceae, or Hydrastidaceae of some authors). Clematis wood has features typical of wood of vines and lianas: wide (earlywood) vessels, abundant axial parenchyma (earlywood, s...

The external and internal structures of fruits from 95 taxa representing 27 Ranunculaceae genera of China were studied. The results show that Ranunculaceae could be divided into 4 groups based on the fruit types, epidermal surface, vascular bundle, mesocarp cell, and endocarp cell structures: Group 1: follicle or achene, branching or branching and anastomosing vascular bundles, mesocarp parench...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Floral symmetry presents two main states in angiosperms, namely polysymmetry and monosymmetry. Monosymmetry is thought to have evolved several times independently from polysymmetry, possibly in co-adaptation with specialized pollinators. Monosymmetry commonly refers to the perianth, even though associated androecium modifications have been reported. The evolution of perianth...

Floral bilateral symmetry (zygomorphy) has evolved several times independently in angiosperms from radially symmetrical (actinomorphic) ancestral states. Homologs of the Antirrhinum majus Cycloidea gene (Cyc) have been shown to control floral symmetry in diverse groups in core eudicots. In the basal eudicot family Ranunculaceae, there is a single evolutionary transition from actinomorphy to zyg...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Ranunculaceae has a prominent phylogenetic position in Ranunculales which appears at the base of eudicots. The aims of the present paper are to reveal the features of ovule morphogenesis in different taxa and gain a better understanding of the systematics of Ranunculaceae. METHODS Flowers of 17 species from three subfamilies, nine tribes and 16 genera of Ranunculaceae, at ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Ranunculaceae presents both ancestral and derived floral traits for eudicots, and as such is of potential interest to understand key steps involved in the evolution of zygomorphy in eudicots. Zygomorphy evolved once in Ranunculaceae, in the speciose and derived tribe Delphinieae. This tribe consists of two genera (Aconitum and Delphinium s.l.) comprising more than one-quarte...

The Coptis chinensis Franch. is an important medicinal plant from the Ranunculales. We used next generation sequencing technology to determine the complete chloroplast genome of C. chinensis. This genome is 155,484 bp long with 38.17% GC content. Two 26,758 bp long inverted repeats separated the genome into a typical quadripartite structure. The C. chinensis chloroplast genome consists of 128 g...