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The Evolution of Angiosperm Trees: From Palaeobotany to Genomics

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Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics of Angiosperm Trees

Part of the book series: Plant Genetics and Genomics: Crops and Models ((PGG,volume 21))

Abstract

Angiosperm trees now rival the largest conifers in height and many species reach over 80 m high. The large tree life form, with extensive secondary xylem, originated with the progymnosperms and gymnosperms in the Devonian and Carboniferous. However evidence suggests that the ancestor of extant angiosperms was not a tree but either a herb or understory shrub. Angiosperm fossil woods are rare in the early Cretaceous but become common in the mid-Cretaceous. The “reinvention” of wood in the Cretaceous produced a novel xylary morphospace that has since been extensively explored by subsequent evolution. Today, large timber trees are absent in the early diverging lineages of the angiosperms, and conventional wood has been lost in the monocots. There are a few timber trees in the magnoliid clade. Most timber trees are in the rosid clade, particularly the fabids (e.g. Fabaceae) but also in the Malvids (e.g. Meliaceae). Timber trees are less common in the strongly herbaceous asterid clade but some important timbers are also found in this lineage such as teak, Tectona grandis (Lamiaceae). Genomic resources for angiosperm trees are developing rapidly and this, coupled with the huge variation in woody habit, make angiosperm trees a highly promising comparative system for understanding wood evolution at the molecular level.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Drs. Wm. Stein, Richard Bateman and Paula Rudall for helpful discussion and advice. Work in the laboratory of QC is funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grants Program (grant no. RGPIN-2014-05820).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Quentin C. B. Cronk

  2. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AB, UK

    Félix Forest

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  1. Quentin C. B. Cronk
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Correspondence to Quentin C. B. Cronk .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Pacific Southwest Research Station, United States Forest Service, Davis, California, USA

    Andrew Groover

  2. Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Quentin Cronk

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Cronk, Q.C.B., Forest, F. (2017). The Evolution of Angiosperm Trees: From Palaeobotany to Genomics. In: Groover, A., Cronk, Q. (eds) Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics of Angiosperm Trees. Plant Genetics and Genomics: Crops and Models, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/7397_2016_31

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