Micromorphology and Anatomy of the Flowers in Clivia spp. and Scadoxus multiflorus (Haemantheae, Amaryllidaceae)

The general morphology, micromorphology, and anatomy of the flowers of Clivia miniata , Clivia nobilis , and Scadoxus multiflorus were studied using light microscopy. The studied species have large syntepalous and trimerous flowers, short floral tubes with adnate stamens, and inferior ovaries that develop baccate fruit. The gynoecium in the studied species consists of synascidiate, symplicate, and hemisymplicate zones. The style is composed of postgenitally fused carpels. The few ovules are located in a locule in the synascidiate and symplicate zones in C. miniata and C. nobilis , whereas in S. multiflorus , solitary ovules occupy the synascidiate zone in each locule. The septal nectaries are located in the hemisymplicate zone and occupy the uppermost 29% to 56% of the ovary height. Septal nectaries are of the nonlabyrinthine lilioid-type, covered with secretory tissue only in its lower portion. Nectary channels are apical or subapical and open near the style base. A common pattern of the venation of the floral parts was observed in all species: Tepal traces and stamen traces were fused in the ovary wall, the style was supplied by dorsal carpellary bundles, and ovules were supplied by ventral carpellary bundles entering the ovary from the bottom. The observed gynoecium inner structure provides adaptations for the development of fleshy fruit, with thickened parenchymous ovary wall, ovary base, and ovary roof, and numerous branched vascular bundles in the ovary wall around locules.

Morpho-Anatomy of the Gynoecium and Fruit in Three Ornamental Members of Campanuloideae (Campanulaceae)

Gynoecium and fruit micromorphology and anatomy were studied using light microscopy in three species of Campanuloideae belonging to the tribes Cyanantheae ( Platycodon grandiflorus ), Wahlenbergieae ( Jasione montana ), and Campanuleae ( Adenophora liliifolia ) of the native and cultivated flora of Ukraine, to elucidate structural adaptations for fruit dehiscence. The studied species differed in flower/fruit orientation, carpel number, ovary insertion, and capsule-opening position, and the information provided a background for the discovery of common anatomical features influencing fruit dehiscence. In the studied species, the synascidiate and symplicate zones in the ovary and prominent placentae were found to be located near the mid-region of the ovary. The distinct innervation of the ovary wall and ovules was described. In P. grandiflorus , the septa and fruit wall contained a lignified parenchyma in a subepidermal position, while in J. montana and A. liliifolia , lignification was observed only in proximal portions of the septa, above the placenta ( J. montana ), or was noted as a narrow strand from the ovary base to the mid-region, called “axicorn” ( A. liliifolia ). In all the studied species, unlignified endocarpium was detected. The semi-inferior capsule of P. grandiflorus has been defined as a capsule of the Forsythia -type, with a sclerenchymatous layer in the inner zone of the mesocarpium. In J. montana and A. liliifolia , a new histogenetic type of capsule is described as Campanula -type, without lignified layers in the fruit wall and with lignified tissue in the septa, which enabled dehiscence. Our study proposed for the first time the classification of the capsules found in the studied species based on the development of openings in the superior or inferior regions of the fruits. The upright fruits of P. grandiflorus and J. montana reveal incomplete dorsiventral dehiscence in the superior region of the fruit, while dehiscence of pendent fruits of A. liliifolia is hippocrepiform-septifragal interlocular and occurs in the inferior region of the fruit at its base, as revealed previously in Campanula latifolia fruit.

Comparative Study of Ovule Development between Wild (Passiflora foetida L.) and Cultivated (P. edulis Sims) Species of Passiflora L. Provide Insights into Its Differential Developmental Patterns

The ovules inside the ovary of a plant are the precursors of seeds and they are important for the perpetuation of the plants. The genus Passiflora L., produce fruits with numerous seeds and they have economic and medicinal value. The edible portion of the Passiflora are the seeds surrounded by pulp. Being the edible parts of a fruit, it is important to investigate the early development of ovules in Passiflora that lead to the formation of seeds after pollination. Wild relatives of the domesticated crops are increasingly being investigated for possible genetic resources that can be used for crop improvement programs. The present study was designed to investigate the comparative ovule development between a wild (Passiflora foetida L.) and a cultivated (Passiflora edulis Sims) species of Passiflora with an aim that it may provide important information about the common and diverging regulatory mechanisms during ovule development between the wild and the cultivated species. We also investigated the pollen morphology between the wild and cultivated species using light and scanning electron microscopy. Our results show that wild type P. foetida ovule growth is faster when compared with that of cultivated P. edulis. Furthermore, wild species harbour ovules of large size (0.14 mm2) but less in number (6) as compared to cultivated ones which show smaller size (0.05 mm2) of ovules but relatively more in number (21). The differences in ovary wall thickness were also stark between the two species. The ovary wall thickness was 0.10 mm in the wild type whereas it was 0.74 mm in cultivated species. Notable differences were also observed in diameter where the wild type (2.45 mm) reported smaller diameter than cultivated species (3.25 mm). We observed little difference in the pollen morphology between the two species.

A new species of Peritassa (Celastraceae) from Espírito Santo, Brazil

Peritassa formidolosa, the new species here described, differs from other species of Peritassa Miers by its unique combination of characters: anthers dehiscent by longitudinal slits, inconspicuous connectives, and campanuliform flowers. This new taxon is included into Peritassa because of these characteristics: anther dehiscence mode and short-tubular disc free from the ovary wall.

МІКРОМОРФОЛОГІЯ ТА АНАТОМІЯ КВІТКИ LEUCOJUM AESTIVUM L. (AMARYLLIDACEAE J. ST.-HIL.)

In the gynoecium of L. aestivum there are synascidiate, hemisynascidiate, symplicate, and asymplicate vertical zones. The longest zone is the fertile hemisynascidiate zone and the shortest is the synascidiate zone in the ovary. It was discovered that in L. aestivum the peduncle consists of 12 vascular bundles, which are reorganized into two circles of bundles, the outer with massive leading bundles, departing as dorsal bundles of perianth, traces of perianth tepals and septal bundles of carpels and inner circle of bundles over the nests are divided into three groups of ventral carpel bundles are lined up on four, which are located in the center of the ovary and providing nutrition to the ovules. Dorsal carpels bundles are double. Above the locule, ventral bundles of the carpel, as well as the double septal bundles, merge with the dorsal bundles and form a dorsal vein. The outer tepals of the simple perianth have nine vascular traces, and the inner tepals of the perianth have eight vascular traces. Traces of stamens are single-bundle, formed from traces of perianth tepals. The ovary has features of the early stages of fruit morphogenesis and adaptation to disclosure, such as differentiation of mesocarp and endocarp cells, double dorsal bundles of carpels. Structural flower features related to pollen proposal as reward pollinators. Since ovary is a structural basis of the fruit, histological ovary wall differentiation reflects the features of the subsequent morphogenesis of the fruit.

Gynoecium structure and development in core Caryophyllales: a matter of proportions

This review based on a morphological and developmental perspective reveals a striking diversity in shapes and evolutionary trends in the gynoecium of core Caryophyllales that have affected the number of carpels, the formation of septa and the number of ovules. Two major developmental shifts are responsible for the diversity in gynoecial forms and are linked to the proportional development of carpellary tissue (ovary wall) and the floral apex. (1) Meristic change is caused by an expansion or reduction of the diameter of the floral apex. An expansion leads to polygyny linked with the development of more numerous small carpels; a reduction of space leads to lower carpel numbers, eventually resulting in a single carpel. (2) Different ovary shapes can be recognized at a mid-developmental stage predicting the further development of ovaries. With an equal growth of the ovary wall and floral apex, young ovaries take the shape of a salt-shaker; with more extensive development of the floral apex and delay of the ovary wall, a club-shaped ovary is formed; with faster growth of the ovary wall linked with intercalary expansion and a delayed growth of the floral apex, a (half-) inferior cup-shaped ovary develops. The different growth forms are the results of heterochronic shifts and affect the development of septa and ovule numbers. A common trend in the order implies a weakening and break-up of septa during development, leading to residual apical and basal septa and the shift to free-central and basal placentation. The club-shaped ovary is linked with an almost complete loss of septa and a reduction of the ovule number to one. The salt-shaker shape leads to ovaries with a massive placental column and several ovules. The cup-shaped ovary leads to a shift of ovules away from the floral apex. Developmental flexibility is responsible for a disconnection of carpel wall growth from ovular tissue. Subtle shifts in proportional growth lead to a high diversification of ovaries in core Caryophyllales and the establishment of predictable developmental trends. These trends clearly represent apomorphic tendencies, affecting different families of core Caryophyllales in different degrees. The ancestral gynoecium was probably pentamerous and isomerous with the other floral whorls, with ovules clearly separated from the carpellary wall and inserted on axile placentas corresponding to the central axis of the flower.

×Bacurio, a new nothogenus for the hybrid ×B. delphinatifolius (Baculellum articulatum × Curio rowleyanus), with notes on the nomenclature of Kleinia ×peregrina, Senecio peregrinus, S. ×peregrinus, and Curio ×peregrinus (Asteraceae: Asteroideae: Senecioneae)

The genus Kleinia Miller (1754: page headed KI KL) (Asteraceae, subfam. Asteroideae, tr. Senecioneae) has been variously circumscribed over time, but in the past was often regarded as worthy of segregation from Senecio Linnaeus (1753: 866) based on, inter alia, the architecture of ovary wall crystals (Jeffrey 1986) and the prevalence of stem succulence (Halliday 1988: 1) and, to some degree, leaf succulence (see Cicuzza et al. 2017 for an overview). The recently described genus Curio Heath (1997: 136) accommodates mostly low-growing to medium-sized leaf succulents with rather dull-coloured capitula that generally lack ray florets.

Anatomy and development of gynoecium in Tapiscia sinensis Oliv. and its implications for the origin of carpels

Tapiscia sinensis Oliv. (Tapisciaceae) is a rare tree endemic in China. Characteristic of its androdioecy is the coexistence of male and hermaphroditic flowers. Its bisexual flower bears five stamens surrounding the gynoecium, which is composed of a terminal style and an ovary at the base. The style has a bifid stigmata, which is hollow and longer than stamens. The ovary is syncarpous, unilocular, formed by two fused carpels, with a basal or subbasal placenta. Ovule is bitegmic, anatropous, borne on the placenta and supplied by an amphicribral vascular bundle arising directly from receptacle. The carpel wall is supplied by a collateral vascular bundle. The ovule’s position changes from initially inserted on the ovary base to later attached to the middle of the ovary wall due to unequal growth of the embryo sac. Based on the present observation and others, the implications of vascular system in Tapiscia for the evolution of carpel are discussed.