Abstract
No topic in plant evolution has been more controversial or generated a larger literature than the origin of the angiosperm flower and its components. From the time of Charles Darwin, the failure of either the fossil record or modern comparative morphology to provide plausible intermediate stages between the angiosperm flower and somewhat comparable fertile structures in the gymnosperms has produced a number of contradictory hypotheses and interpretations, none of which have received anything like universal acceptance. Certainly, the leading contender at the present time would be the Magnolialean hypothesis which regards the base of the flowering plants as lying closest to the modern Order Magnoliales (Tahktajan 1953, Tahktajan 1969, Tahktajan 1980), whose flowers are regarded as reduced simple shoots with attached floral organs that are all interpreted as leaf homologs (Bessey, 1897; Bailey and Swamy, 1951; Tahktajan, 1991).
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© 1996 Chapman & Hall
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Hickey, L.J., Taylor, D.W. (1996). Origin of the Angiosperm Flower. In: Taylor, D.W., Hickey, L.J. (eds) Flowering Plant Origin, Evolution & Phylogeny. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-23095-5_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-23095-5_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-412-05341-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-585-23095-5
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