A New Variety of Abrus Precatorius L. (Fabaceae) From Bangladesh

A new variety Abrus precatorius L. var. albo-spermum Hassan, Rahman et Afroz, var. nov. is described and illustrated from Bangladesh. The new variety is closest to Abrus preactorius L., but differs by its white coloured oval shaped seeds, short gynoecium which is half the length of longer filaments and with a short style. Bangladesh J. Plant Taxon. 28(2): 289-294, 2021 (December)

Style length and flower morphology of three eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) cultivars from Iran affected by fruit load

<p>A common feature of eggplant is its heterostyly. Long-style flowers bear fruits whereas short style ones fail to do so. Heterostyly is influenced by some factors such as genotype, climatic conditions and fruit load. In this study three eggplant cultivars from Iran were cultivated under greenhouse condition. The influence of presence of fruit (two fruits and four fruits) or absence of that on style length and some other flower morphological was studied in three positions of single, basal and additional. The presence of fruit, specially four fruits reduced style length, stigma width as well as mass of flower, pistil and stigma compared to the control in all times during fruit growth, and after fruit harvest they increased again. Fruit load didn’t affect the number of stamen and stamen length. These effects were observed in all three positons of single, basal and additional flowers of all three cultivars. Generally this study showed that fruit load has decreasing effect on style length and size of flowers forming after fruit setting, which reversed after fruit harvesting.</p>

Combined instructions and template for articles submitted to the ANZIAM Journal

Use LaTeX to generate the PDF to be submitted for consideration. Download the following from the links listed to the right, use "Save link as ..." download the leaflet, anziamleaflet.pdf, as a handy reference; download the new short style file, anziamjedraft.sty; download the new LaTeX template, template.tex; and perhaps what it looks like, template.pdf; Interactive three dimensional plots for documents, i3dp.pdf.

Comparative floral and pollen morphology of some invasive and native impatiens species

To evaluate the hypothesis of competitive superiority of invasive species, we compared the invasive Impatiens parviflora DC. and I. Glandulifera royle, the naturalized I. Nevskii pobed. and the native I. Noli-tangere L. in the flowers’ morphometric characters at different phases of anthesis. The characters in which alien species have a competitive superiority over closely related I. Noli-tangere are revealed. Morphological variability was studied by morphometric observations of the following characters: bud: length and diameter; spurred sepal: length and width; spur: length and diameter; lateral sepal: length and width; largest petal: length and death; large lobe of lateral petal: length and width; small lobe of lateral petal: length and width; anther: length; stamen’s filament: length; calyptra: length and width; ovary: length and diameter; length of a style, length of a stigma. There is a tendency for alien Impatiens species of the earlier development of androecium and gynoecium: сaliptra is formed at the stage of uncolored bud, the pistil is differentiated in ovary, short style and stigma is formed at the stage of colored bud. No other flowers’ morphometric characters, representing competitive advantage of the invasive I. Glandulifera and I. Parviflora over the native I. Noli-tangere and naturalized I. Nevskii were identified.

The decoration of specialized metabolites influences stylar development

Plants produce many different specialized (secondary) metabolites that function in solving ecological challenges; few are known to function in growth or other primary processes. 17-Hydroxygeranylinalool diterpene glycosides (DTGs) are abundant herbivory-induced, structurally diverse and commonly malonylated defense metabolites in Nicotiana attenuata plants. By identifying and silencing a malonyltransferase, NaMaT1, involved in DTG malonylation, we found that DTG malonylation percentages are normally remarkably uniform, but when disrupted, result in DTG-dependent reduced floral style lengths, which in turn result from reduced stylar cell sizes, IAA contents, and YUC activity; phenotypes that could be restored by IAA supplementation or by silencing the DTG pathway. Moreover, the Nicotiana genus-specific JA-deficient short-style phenotype also results from alterations in DTG malonylation patterns. Decorations of plant specialized metabolites can be tuned to remarkably uniform levels, and this regulation plays a central but poorly understood role in controlling the development of specific plant parts, such as floral styles.

Floral development and vascularization help to explain merism evolution inPaepalanthus(Eriocaulaceae, Poales)

BackgroundFlowers in Eriocaulaceae, a monocot family that is highly diversified in Brazil, are generally trimerous, but dimerous flowers occur inPaepalanthusand a few other genera. The floral merism in an evolutionary context, however, is unclear.Paepalanthusencompasses significant morphological variation leading to a still unresolved infrageneric classification. Ontogenetic comparative studies of infrageneric groups inPaepalanthusand in Eriocaulaceae are lacking, albeit necessary to establish evolution of characters such as floral merism and their role as putative synapomorphies.MethodsWe studied the floral development and vascularization of eight species ofPaepalanthusthat belong to distinct clades in which dimery occurs, using light and scanning electron microscopies.ResultsFloral ontogeny in dimerousPaepalanthusshows lateral sepals emerging simultaneously and late-developing petals. The outer whorl of stamens is absent in all flowers examined here. The inner whorl of stamens becomes functional in staminate flowers and is reduced to staminodes in the pistillate ones. In pistillate flowers, vascular bundles reach the staminodes. Ovary vascularization shows ventral bundles in a commissural position reaching the synascidiate portion of the carpels. Three gynoecial patterns are described for the studied species: (1) gynoecium with a short style, two nectariferous branches and two long stigmatic branches, in most species; (2) gynoecium with a long style, two nectariferous branches and two short stigmatic branches, inP. echinoides; and (3) gynoecium with long style, absent nectariferous branches and two short stigmatic branches, inP. scleranthus.DiscussionFloral development of the studied species corroborates the hypothesis that the sepals of dimerous flowers ofPaepalanthuscorrespond to the lateral sepals of trimerous flowers. The position and vascularization of floral parts also show that, during dimery evolution inPaepalanthus, a flower sector comprising the adaxial median sepal, a lateral petal, a lateral stamen and the adaxial median carpel was lost. In the staminate flower, the outer whorl of staminodes, previously reported by different authors, is correctly described as the apical portion of the petals and the pistillodes are reinterpreted as carpellodes. The occurrence of fused stigmatic branches and protected nectariferous carpellodes substantiates a close relationship betweenP.sect.ConodiscusandP.subg.Thelxinoë. Free stigmatic branches and exposed carpellodes substantiate a close relationship betweenP. sect.Diphyomene,P. sect.EriocaulopsisandP. ser.Dimeri. Furthermore, the loss of nectariferous branches may have occurred later than the fusion of stigmatic branches in the clade that groupsP. subg.ThelxinoëandP. sect.Conodiscus.

The Rhetoric of Style

Style is in the traditional canon of rhetoric and means the manipulation of language for rhetorical effect. Historically, eras that emphasized style in rhetoric also tended to regard rhetoric as of secondary importance in public discourse, as the window dressing for logic and more substantive modes of invention. When we think of style more broadly as the use of gesture, clothing, decoration, objects, grooming—in short, of style in the more colloquial sense of “he’s got style”—then we see a wider and more important role for style as a major form of rhetoric. Today, the need of global capitalism to sustain artificially high levels of consumption is largely achieved through a rhetoric of style. The public must be persuaded to churn its clothing, decoration, grooming styles, and so forth constantly to keep consumption up, and the most effective way to achieve that end is through creating in people a preoccupation with style. Once that happens, then style becomes the major way in which we think about presenting ourselves to others. Style becomes the way in which people say who they are, who they want to be, and who they feel opposed to. Style becomes a major expression of political commitment. In short, style has become a major if not the major rhetorical system at work in the world today. We understand what others mean, and we influence others, through style much more than we do through carefully planned discursive discourses, argument, and expository presentations. Because global capitalism is the engine behind this preoccupation with style, style is a system of communication likely to increase in dominance and importance.

New taxa of Hesperantha (Iridaceae: Crocoideae) from the southern African winter rainfall region and a review of the H. pilosa complex

The southern and tropical Africa genus Hesperantha Ker Gawl., now with 85 species, is distinguished in subfam. Crocoideae by the style dividing into relatively long, usually laxly spreading style branches at or shortly below the mouth of the perianth tube (rarely well within the tube or above the mouth of the tube) and, with a few exceptions, by hard, woody corm tunics. We describe three new species here. H. dolomitica Goldblatt J.C.Manning, a narrow endemic of limestone outcrops on slopes north of the Vars River in the Knersvlakte, Western Cape, has the bell-shaped corms characteristic of the small sect. Hesperantha but is distinctive in the section in its pure white perianth with relatively long tube and soft-textured, falcate to distally trailing leaves. H. laxifolia Goldblatt J.C.Manning from the Pakhuis Mtns, Western Cape, stands out in sect. Hesperantha in its prostate, somewhat succulent foliage leaves, and spikes of 2–5 white flowers with unusually short filaments less than 1 mm long and particularly short anthers, ± 4 mm long. The short style branches, ± 4 mm long, remain suberect rather than laxly spreading. H. secunda Goldblatt J.C.Manning from the Roggeveld Escarpment, Northern Cape, has until now been included in H. pilosa but differs in its secund spike of nodding flowers with short style branches, and leaves with broadly winged margins. We also recognize a new subsp. bracteolata (R.C.Foster) Goldblatt J.C.Manning of H. pilosa (L.f.) Ker Gawl. for populations of plants with diurnal flowers with usually blue or purple (occasionally white) tepals lacking dark pigmentation on the reverse. With additional material to hand, we reduce blue-flowered H. ciliolata Goldblatt to synonymy in subsp. bracteolata and report range extensions for H. pilosa subsp. pilosa, now recorded as far east as the Langeberg near Cloete’s Pass.

New species of Moraea (Iridaceae: Iridoideae), with range extensions and miscellaneous notes for southern African species

Three new species are described in the largely sub-Saharan genus Moraea Mill. (± 200 spp.), all from its centre of diversity in the winter rainfall region of southern Africa. Moraea pearsonii, from Hottentotskloof near Ceres in Western Cape, flowers in late November and December when its leaves are ± dry, and has small, pale lilac, stellate flowers with the style branches each divided to the base into filiform arms. Moraea tanquana, from the Tankwa River Basin in Northern Cape, resembles the southern Namaqualand M. deserticola but has broad, plane leaves, short anthers exserted from a shallower floral cup and a short style. In section Acaules, M. longipes from Namaqualand stands out in its early flowering habit, a stem consisting of a single long intemode reaching well above the ground, short style and unusually long anthers. Moraea jarmilae described from Ox Bow, Lesotho in 2002, is conspecific with M. albicuspa and is reduced to synonymy. Significant range extensions are reported for M. elsiae, M. falcifolia, M. pseudospicata, M. spathulata, M. tricolor, M. vegeta, M. verecunda, M. vespertina and M. vlokii. A yellow-flowered morph, local in the Perdebont Valley of the Little Karoo, is reported for the first time in typically blue- to violet-flowered M. bipartita, as well as the occurrence of a hybrid swarm, rare in Moraea, between M. bipartita and M. polyanthos.

New species of Iridaceae from the Hantam-Roggeveld Centre of Endemism, and the Bokkeveld, Northern Cape, South Africa

Three new species of Iridaceae are described from the Bokkeveld and Roggeveld Escarpments. Ixia amethystina. a member of section Dichone, is endemic to the edge of the Roggeveld Escarpment. It shares an unusual, inclined spike that is nodding in bud with I. trifolia but is distinguished by its blackish purple (not yellow) anthers, narrower leaves 1.5-2.0 mm wide, medium-textured corm tunics that form a distinct neck at the base of the stem, and short style branches 2.0-2.5 mm long.Moraea marginata. another Roggeveld endemic, is a member of section Polvanthes and florally similar to M. fistulosa and M. monticola but differs in its linear, channelled leaves 5-7 mm wide, with unusual, thickened margins. Romulea singularis. from the edge of the Kobee River Valley in the Bokkeveld Mountains, is a member of section Ciliatae. It is unique in the genus in its narrowly funnel-shaped, mauve to purple flowers with slender perianth tube 10-11 mm long, and unusually long filaments, 8-9 mm long, inserted in the lower half of the tube.